Assassin's Creed: Diamond in the Rough
by Nastassia-Grigorios
Summary: Nastassia Grigorios was taught from birth in the ways of the Assassin brotherhood when tragedy thrust her in the midst of a holy war against the Church. It is 1478 as she is close to exacting her rage-fueled revenge but her life is about to change...forever. Things she knew or thought she knew will never be the same again as she encounters an assassin by the name of Ezio Auditore.
1. Chapter 1 A Formal Introduction

_To my wonderful husband, my shining star and muse. You will always be my Assassini..._

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San Gimigiano, a town of daunting towers that reach and claw skyward, massive granite brick monoliths that were built to withstand the howling winds of Tuscan summer rains and heavy weight of near ceaseless winter snows. The night was cool, calm, quiet; no breeze, no bellowing merchants trying to sell their wares, with few people. A near entire city asleep and that was just like she liked it. Azure eyes scanned the horizon from atop the second tallest tower within the city as yet another star fell from the heavily dotted night sky. What was that, the seventh one in the last hour since the sun faded from the day? It was beyond her comprehension why heavenly beings fell from their royal seats above mankind, but perhaps it was so angels could walk amongst men, to protect those that could not protect themselves. Anna leaned heavily on her bow as a sigh escaped her lips, the scuff of boots on stone assaulted her ears as if the sound happened right by her. One hand reached to the quiver behind her, two hundred obsidian tipped, eagle feather adorned arrows at the ready for her to pluck one, eager for the taste of blood. She turned, arrow secured against the string, the black bow creaked and bowed at the black leather grip, tension applied as she pulled the string back, touched her lip and pivoted right on her heel, her upper torso extended up and over the ledge, eyes closed as another part of her took over a sixth sense of sorts. Her fingers let go of the yew wound string, and all the guard a hundred meters away atop the third tallest tower heard was the sound of a whisper...and perhaps the blood that filled his lungs.

Yes, tonight was a good night.

Anna took eight running steps and with finesse she threw herself over the pigeon-covered ledge, a beautiful swan dive into a hay cart below where she waited for the rest of the evening shift change to occur, the guard atop the tower the first of many she knew. Four guards took the post of the four who had stood in front of a bank overlooking the city's now quiet central square and who now lay in the cart with her and she listened intently to the conversation. She had been in the city for three days and in her observations she found that the night watch was far more...liberal in what fell from their lips. An hour in, and after nearly a dozen pointless conversations later one of them regurgitated something useful._ About time,_ Anna thought for a moment, a fleeting second passed as the brute's comrades groaned and shook their heads.

"So the commander told me that Messer Maffei would be arriving at dawn out of Firenze, Franco will be taking my place in a few hours. I get to escort his carriage," the brute cawed, the outward shift of his chest apparent even though he was buried beneath layers of chain mail and plate armor. The other three guards who stood with him rolled their eyes at their comrades boasting.

"Well aren't you just special. We always knew you were the commander's call boy," the captain smirked beneath his helmet, enough of his face left uncovered to allow her to see the full effect of the sarcastic emotion behind his comment.

"Tell me, brother, does he at least let you pick the position?" another laughed.

The brute chuckled, "You're just jealous. By the way...I saw your wife tonight, she wanted me tell you 'Salute' just before she showed me that birthmark you're always gabbing about."

The captain snarled, "You figlio de putana!"His face turned a brilliant shade of red, to match the red stripe that ran vertically down to the ground along the outer seam line of his trousers, a match to the red pinstripes in the black tunic and sleeves of his uniform.

Anna watched the later exchange in mild amusement before her thoughts turned once more to the arrival of a man she knew to be in league with the Spanish High Inquisitor. Antonio Maffei a king among vipers to be certain, a true heretic and hypocrite if ever there was one. A wicked smile crossed her lips at the thought of his eyes, wide as they gawked but pale without the Divine spark that once gave the demon plagued creature life. _Five years, five years and finally God has given me the opportunity to repay the 'kindness' that bastardi and his Master had once done me._ The past haunted her, was the reason why sleep and sanity were no longer her loyal companions as they had been when she was yet a child.

With a near quiet rustle, she exited the hay cart, slipped into the shadows, and scaled the wall in front of her. The rooftops her confidant once more as she crept to the southernmost gate, but as she crept further still, caught in a beautiful dance as she spun and pirouetted from shadow to shadow she heard the distant cry of a guard. Distress over the sight of a man on the rooftops two streets away from her, and from the flurry of profanities it sounded as if he had been in hot pursuit for some time. Anna stopped, instincts grabbed her and pulled her into a rooftop gazebo draped in crimson cloth, perfect for her to hide just long enough in given that the guard and the man in question had quickly begun to close the distance between her and them. A breeze began to stir the fabric of her hiding place, a strong whiff of lavender and musk assaulted her nose to which she was obliged to inhale it deeply.

Then a chord hummed inside of her, a resonance of the familiar like the strum of the string of her bow. That aroma, she had to.

With a quick flip of her crimson hood, a free hand pulled the matching crimson veil once more across the lower half of her face, a mask that hid her identity well. Anna took up her bow, her right hand caressed the feathered ends of the arrows in her quiver until one cried out to her. She counted in her head the steps that mapped themselves in her mind's eye as her talent once more took a strong foothold, her movements controlled into a single fluid mass that had stolen her father's breath away as he had trained her when she could first learn to walk. The man, who wore the same white garb as the man who had drug her from her cell, rushed passed with the guard quickly on his heels. She exited her hiding place, pulled the string, and with a whisper let fly the arrow that found its mark; two inches to the left of the spine, a half centimeter down to clear the rib cage and intercostal membranes, the obsidian point a through and through as the shaft pierced and clung to the walls of the guard's heart, an instant drop. She felt a sly smile tug at her lips before the man turned, his bright chocolate hued gaze met her own in shock.

Ezio Auditore had no idea what had just happened. The guard who now had done a perfect face plant in the tiles beneath their feet had just been in the process of calling him every name under the sun but one descent enough to repeat. He never heard the figure, clearly female by the hint of the bosom that peaked over the black corset cinched ever so precisely around a narrow waistline, the black trousers that clung so desperately to her every curve, the elevated heel that only added maybe what, an inch to the tall female a dead give away to her gender. How long had she been there? Had La Volpe sent her to aid in his efforts to wipe the Pazzi conspirators out of existence?

Anna's face had paled; she could feel the blood leave it. It had been two years since word had reached her ears of the death of the assassin Giovanni Auditore and his children with him, the result of a horrid lie spread about the man and by Templar lips no doubt. How could he be here, just a few short meters away from her touch? Her heart had yearned for it to be truly the man she once worshipped as a father figure, a man who saved her life and sent her to live with his brother in the Tuscan countryside not far from where she stood now. Her right hand rose slightly, instinctively to reach out to him.

Anna's eyes cleared of the cloud that had befell them moments before, the realization that the man who now stared at her was far too young to be the elder man she once knew and loved. _Run, and don't look back, just run!_ The voice in her head screamed at her and she had to oblige.

His mind reeling still, his eyes could not help but drink in her visage in the split second he had been given before she pivoted so gracefully on her heel and darted across the rooftops. When he finally managed to shake the shock from his system, she was nearly half way to the gate with three guards left still as statues, dropped where they stood. She was quick, ridiculously agile...and beautiful.

"You'd better hurry, friend," a thief said from a neighboring rooftop as he caught the dumb founded look written on the young man's face, near one of the five towers of San Gimigiano, "word on the roofs say with as quick as that vixen is, she'll be gone and half way to Firenze before you could blink," he laughed.

Ezio could but only oblige the thief's goading; after all, this fem fatale clearly made her intent known that it was the guard, not him, that would meet the business end of her arrows. After all, how could he let those breath-taking blue gems leave without saying goodbye? More importantly, he had to find out why exactly she was here. He could afford no mistake or competition if that was indeed what she was. He had heard tell from the last three of the four conspirators that Maffei would soon arrive and that he would tell him where the secret meeting with Jacopo de'Pazzi would be meeting with this mysterious 'Maestro'.

His chest heaved, his feet already tired after the long sprint to evade the guard who targeted him nearly as soon as he set foot in San Gimigiano. Now, Ezio ran as fast as he could and dared across rooftops to catch up to the fleeing woman. That look in her eye, it was as if she had seen a ghost. Nothing slowed her, not guards, not the uneven ground which she darted and danced over. This woman could run, and he bet if push came to shove she would be able to out distance him in any endurance race; it was if she was bred for this, bred for running.

Anna could not help but feel elated, adrenaline poured through her veins, her chest heaving as she breathed in through her nose and out of her mouth, oxygen entering her lean musculature as she led the white hooded man across rooftop after rooftop. She did not have to look back to sense he was tiring; she could hear it in his footfalls across the tiles of the houses and shops the pair sailed across. When the sounds began to dull, she slowed enough to let him believe he grew closer to her capture, only to best him by an additional ten meters. She reached the wall and without thought she leapt, her knees curled toward her chest as she tucked into a tiny ball, like a pill bug. She hit the rooftop of the fast travel station, unfurled and landed on the fence, a lark to the smallest twig.

Ezio found he was more and more taken aback by the woman, dumb founded awake as he suffered a failed attempt to imitate her moves. "Signoria, please, wait! Just one, scopata della madre word, that is all I ask," he pleaded; deaf ears all that replied as his pleas were to no avail, a wince passed across his boyish features. Would she ever stop?

Anna heard his desperate pleas for her to halt and his words fell on her ears in an unfamiliar range. The man's attire, that scent, all the same as his had been the day he scooped her into his arms and placed her high on the back of his horse. Yet his voice, so foreign and young in tone that it could not have been the same man who clung so desperately to her that night as that man's voice was more at the level of a father. No, this man was a post-adolescent boy if her ears interpreted the pitch variations correctly in his winded begging, and more than likely one of the Church's altar boys sent to protect Maffei no doubt. There was no way she would stop until she had the high ground.

The country side was as wide as it was long and riddled with rolling hills of summer hay and barley, the vineyards ripened and heavy with grapes, pearlescent dew drops shimmered and reflected the light of the white moon that hung low and large in the night sky. The chase that had started near the southernmost gate of San Gimigiano now drug out through fields, over hills and fences. Ezio had enough, chocolate gaze searching for a four legged friend he could jump on. His lungs burned, his muscles ached and there was no way in inferno that he was going to let this crazed woman go without a fight. His eyes lighted on a white mare who grazed lazily in a field, "You'll do" he panted. He leapt the fence and landed squarely on her back, cracked the reins and the mare released a whine that let him know she was displeased with his sudden appearance."Get over it, now go!" he cried.

The steady beat of hooves echoed behind her where she had heard the grunts and groans of a man poorly trained. Still she ran, if not harder still, laughing to herself as a memory recalled of a race against the Gray Fox over the rooftops of Florence. She rolled her eyes, darted right and found herself in a satellite village of the countryside. Anna leapt high beneath an ivy covered beam that connected two housing units together, gloved hands sliding over the ivy, her entire body spun around the beam with enough momentum for her land on a beam seven meters away on her feet. Without missing a step she leapt from one building to another until finally she was able to run left and up an exterior column of a church, gloved hands once more reaching and grasping the ledge. She pulled herself up to the roof before running up another small wall, leapt right, and pulled herself up another ledge to now stand beside the exposed bronze bell in the housing above the heavy wooden doors of the aging structure.

Ezio slid the horse to a halt in front of the church. What was this girl's problem? "So guards don't scare you, but devilishly good looking young men do!" He called up to her, "Come down from there before you hurt yourself. Women shouldn't be climbing tall objects!" he smiled.

Anna rolled her eyes, "And people in hell want cold water," she called back, bow in hand. "Pity your masters won't be so well served in the next life as they are in this," she snarled, cocking her head to the left.

"Signoria, you are clearly misinformed, I am the master of myself," he said with a slight bow. His eyes scanned her but no red aura hung about her; she held no gold or blue aura about herself either. Concern began welling within him, a part wanting to leave now and still, another deeper part clung to the idea of seeing her eyes once more.

His words sounded earnest, no lie detected in his body language or eyes. Still, a gloved hand caressed her arrows once more. To her surprise, none called to her. "What is it you want? Tell me straight and your life will be spared tonight."

Ezio dismounted, "I wish to only speak with you, Madonna. I have no intention on harming such a beautiful being as yourself, of that I swear." His breath had caught when he saw the bow in her left hand as her right searched for a device with which to end him of that he was certain. If the last two years had taught him nothing since he had begun his training with his uncle back at the villa it was the newly developed hatred for arrows and archers. He'd found them both to be quite a...pain in the asino.

The man was obviously flirtatious in nature and it did little to secure him good standing in her eyes. Anna thought about her next set of words when a shadow caught the corner of her field of vision, ears alerted to a secondary shuffling sound that should not have been present seeing the horse now stood still. Had the man been followed, or did he purposely lead another here to lure her into a trap. "Then do so, good sir. I'm sure all of Italia won't be listening to a simple exchange between two hooded creatures of the night," she said. Only the man's actions would tell if he was friend or foe.

Ezio sighed; clearly this was going to be a long night. "Can I at least join you up there?" he inquired. The woman had a logical point; they were conspicuous enough being two people in hoods having a rather loud conversation, it was odder still given the fact she was on a rooftop and he was on the ground.

Anna laughed heartily, "I do one nice thing for you and now it's to this. First it's a word, now you want to join me up on this rooftop? Typical, you take, take, take, I give you a centimeter and you take it to twenty meters and continue to want still. Are you sure you have balls beneath those trousers? You remind me of a woman I once knew."

_Are you kidding me? Scopilo, I had to find a woman with a mouth on her._ The thought brought a sigh of frustration from his lips and Ezio's head was beginning to hurt, "Fine, have it your way," he grumbled and began climbing.

A sly smile crossed her lips as she detected the frustration in his voice. She followed the figure, her eyes never once leaving the figure as he grunted and grumbled his way to the rooftop she stood on, her gaze eventually watching the white clad male stand uneasily on the peak. Her smile vanished as began to advance to her, her bow in hand with arrow at the ready as she moved effortlessly once more, "Right there," she said. Her ears were tuned still to the sound of old tiles being shook loose from their aging settings, who was making that sound.

Ezio was met with drawn bow and arrow at the ready, his right wrist twitched and the sleek silver blade emerged with a _schwink _and a _click_ sound. "M'lady, if this conversation is to remain civil, I would strongly suggest you drop your weapon." His voice was low and smooth, his words sharp with a poisonous suggestion that he was ready to accept her challenge.

Anna watched the blade emerge from his sleeve, head turned slightly to the right as she measured him. The pair held their breath for seemingly an eternity until she dropped her bow, "If it pleases you." Her hand never relinquished its grasp of the ebony objects, her body still as rigid as it had been moments ago.

Her eyes shimmered in the moonlight, her words, though sharp, left her tongue in a gentle roll like water cascading from a waterfall. The night wind changed direction and carried with it her scent; earthy like a forest after a heavy rain with a hint of night blooming jasmine. Ezio found himself ensnared by her, longing for her to unwind enough to let him near her. Yes, he loved women and he loved what they did to him still, but something about her was so enthralling it drove him mad now that they stood meters apart from one another. "First off, I wanted to thank you for saving me back there. That guard had been on me as soon as I hit the first roof," he smiled.

The breeze blew from behind her, but a stray gust bounced off of the wall of the secondary bell tower. Lavender and musk assaulted her nasal cavity once more, the scent intoxicating for her as the young man spoke. Anna took note of how the moonlight illuminated his sun kissed skin beneath the white fabric of his hood. He too was scarred, and on his right side, the line running vertical down from the top lip to his bottom lip near the edge of his mouth. His voice purred in the night air, caressing her ears so gently. "Nessun problema, good sir," her words drifted as her eyes softened as did her posture, the memory of Giovanni flooding her mind, "call it the fulfillment of a promise I once made long ago."

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth at her answer and for a moment he remembered something his uncle had said. _'My boy, you are not alone out there. There are others still who will fight for and with you.'_ "Second, what is your business here?" he asked.

"A problem is said to be plaguing the city and apparently all of Italia it seems. I am here as an enforcer of God to ensure justice is served." Her body tensed once more, "Which reminds me, I could ask you the same thing," she said as she spun the arrow she had been holding onto. The sleek black shaft slid effortlessly over the black leather gloves she wore as her eyes were still trained on the man, her ears honing in on the sound she still followed so closely.

Ezio watched her with guarded interest, musculature tensing as he waited for the object in her possession to be returned to the quiver on her back. "Seems we are both here searching for a pest problem," he smirked as he folded his arms over his chest. "All this week I have been hunting down some rather large vipers in order to find their nest."

"A snake charmer?" she smirked, "Well, then I shall do my best and be ever vigilant against the sound of your out-of-tune piping, Saint Patrick. Perhaps you will cleanse the countryside of her rat population as well?"

Ezio couldn't help but offer a boyish smile. The woman had wit and she was as cunning as she was charming **if** one could consider a female fox deprived of its dinner charming. "Perhaps one day I will have you tell me of this Saint Patrick, bella madonna, but now to more serious business. Again I implore of you, what is your business in San Gimigiano?"

His words fell on deaf ears as she lifted the tip of the arrow to her lips through the crimson veil, eyes narrowed on the source of unease. Anna lowered the arrow to her bow string as she stepped towards the young man, his scent growing stronger still with each of the seven meters her strides quickly closed.

Ezio saw the arrow tip raise to some mid-point on the piece of cloth that hid a majority of her features from him, brow lofted as she hurriedly closed the distance between them. He couldn't help but to smile; someone up there in the heaven's liked him because he got his wish. Her eyes were a chilling blue, the coldest blue he had ever seen, the scent of patchouli and jasmine heavier than they had been moments before. God was she intoxicating. His thoughts drifted until he heard what had struck the alarm; they were not alone.

Anna glanced upward towards the man's eyes, their gaze meeting momentarily and in that moment she felt a chill race up her spine from the base of her back. She was not one to be so easily drawn to anyone, let alone another member of the opposite gender and it down right shook her to the core. "When I say drop, you drop, no questions. Understood?" she said in hushed tones. Her hands dropped, back of the arrow secured against the string of her bow, tension applied as she heard the familiar creak of a weaker bow echo off of the brick wall of the secondary tower. "Now!" she cried.

Ezio did as he was instructed, taking a knee to the roof, the female with a quick side-step as she brought up her bow with fast precision, an opposing arrow flying over him and just a short centimeter away from her left shoulder.

Anna never flinched as she let her arrow fly, moonlight glinting off of the obsidian tip before a cry ripped through the night. The mysterious archer fell to the ground with a _poof_ that echoed softly against the church. She reached a hand down to help the young man she had just saved come to a standing position. He reached up and grasped her forearm and with a quick jerk from her he was on his feet again.

"Madonna, seems I now owe my life to you twice, I am indebted to you," Ezio said, bewildered still how she had heard the noise before he did. Did she, too, possess special talents that defied nature?

"You were followed, messere, whoever trained you has done a poor job. An Assassin, I was told one time, should always be wary of their surroundings, even in their own home." she said coolly as she slipped the open part of her bow around her head, letting the object sit at a diagonal angle across her chest from her upper left shoulder to her lower right side.

Ezio's body tensed, "Prego?"

"I once saw a man dressed like you, boy, many years ago. He was an Assassin much like others I had once known whilst I was yet a child. Be careful on who sees those blades you wield so hastily, there are those out there who mean to do your kind harm just by the sight of those blades alone. "Anna took seven steps away from the seemingly shell shocked young man, peering over the edge, confirmation of her suspicions apparent as her gaze hit a yellow tinted hay pile.

Ezio took two steps towards the woman who now spun on her heel to look at him, stopping him short, "Wait, you know so much of me but I know so little of you. I cannot in good conscience let you part ways without first knowing a name by which I can call you." She had pinned what he was with little to no effort in prying anything out of him, who was this fem fatale?

Anna laughed, "Never on the first date," she said.

Ezio felt a deep seated sense of desperation creep up within him. His uncle had told him a little about what they were, but this woman seemed to know so much more that sounded as if it would answer more questions than create them as the information Mario had given him had done. "Then perhaps if I do so, you will follow suit," he said before bowing slightly at the waist. "I am Ezio Auditore da Firenze, Madonna..."he drifted off mid sentence hoping she would finish the thought.

His name hit her as if the very tower she now stood in front of had just fallen into a million pieces around her. Ezio Auditore, the second son of the departed Giovanni Auditore survived? It wasn't possible. _Que Diavolo_ she thought. She opened her arms wide, she could hear no more of ghosts tonight, "Ezio...until we meet again," she said as she fell backwards. She watched as the man claiming to be Giovanni's son rushed to the edge before she hit the hay. She exited the hay stack, only to come face to face with a waiting steed, the same horse Ezio had rode to the church on. _Free horse_ she thought a sly smile on her lips as she mounted the white horse and with a quick kick, both she and his former ride left the scene.


	2. Chapter 2 Crimson Ghost

Five days ago the lark flew high on the morning breeze, warm and uplifting as she spread her wings to soar, the kingly rooster crowed loudly as he announced to his kingdom that it was now time to stir and begin the day's labor. The day laborer stirred from his bed, kissed his wife, held his children close, and bid them all goodbye for the day while he stepped out from his humble home whether in the city or in a surrounding village home. The smells of fresh baked bread, of oak ablaze in the hearth and pots of boiling stew wafted on the gentle wind, signs of a civilization alive. The vicar preached in front of the church, the heralds called out new edicts and advertised for the merchants in the square, the good people of San Gimigiano bustled about the ancient stone streets always under the watchful eye of the city guard and the grand towers that hovered above them, silent witnesses of the grandeur of the Renaissance. Then evening fell, the people went home, the heralds retired to their chambers, the merchants packed up their wagons, and the vicar settled in to study the word of God by candle light. The hearth fires were snuffed, stew was left above silenced flames to sit for the morrow's dawn, bread crumbs were swept outside before the day laborer's wife tucked her children in bed, then she kissed her husband, his arms around her holding her close as they drew the blankets over them to shield from the chilled night of the Tuscan late summer.

Then the world pivoted and shook violently around them as a Papal carriage rolled into the city, a black funerary cart sent to rape peace of her innocence as the inquisitor stepped onto the streets and declared war against her inhabitants. Guards cried, metal and leather rattled and scuffed against the stone, armor chinked and rubbed together as the watch was doubled. Four abreast the guards strode through San Gimigiano, stood ever vigilant at the northern and southern gates to ensure Antonio Maffei's safety while he screeched from the highest tower in the city both day and night. His cries were relentless as he demanded the city fall to its knees in feverish penitent prayer, empty promises of safety and of hope offered to the few seduced by his false desperation of concern for their eternal souls as archers from on high rained nothing but death and despair as arrows pierced unarmored flesh and bone. The wife sobbed helplessly as her husband, the once happy day laborer, clung dearly to her as his life seeped out of his body and into the streets, a crimson river of pain and sorrow as he kissed her once more and she could only sit by and watch the light leave his handsome brown eyes. His skin now pale as snow matched those of his two children, a son of seven and a daughter of four whose lives needlessly left their little bodies for getting caught by an archer, a callous call on his part as he claimed they stole from a merchant. Her screams of agony only acted to drive Maffei's screeching further before she took her husband's knife and plunged it into her heart, a condemned martyr for his cause as he continued to crow, "See! Even now the whore of Babylon sits on her throne, laughing at your failure to hearken to my words! See how she takes the coward's path, her soul forever condemned and committed to Satan's unholy hands for all eternity. Repent!"

But no one knew that Maffei's misguided calls for penitence were a mere resonance of the fear that gripped his heart, the terror of knowing that three of his brethren lay dead in their graves and that he was next. He knew his days were numbered, but he would take as many people with him until the Assassin struck as he could. Why should good Christian folk live in the shadow of a boy consumed with vengeance? The bastardi who swung from the gallows two years ago deserved the penalty they suffered and the boy would suffer the same fate.

Dawn broke on a city shattered on the fifth day, fear and agony rampant as any plague, a cloud covered sky glowed red as the blood of innocents ran that once seeped through the gutters. The breeze was silent; no lark or rooster dared to disturb the dreary silence that echoed through the streets. The merchants still gathered as did the people, but all kept a wary eye skyward to the towers.

The village tavern outside the walls of the city still hummed with life as Mario's men were more than content to drink themselves senseless, as per their usual, but Ezio could not even remotely consider drink at this point. "Cazzo," Ezio cried, his fist connecting with the oak table in front of him, "I have tried for the last five days to strategize and formulate a plan, but just when I think I have the logistics of it all that bastardi goes and changes things."His heart would have sunk into his stomach had it not been for the anger that stirred inside of him. Every moment since he watched in horror as his father and brothers swung from the gallows he burned with an all consuming thirst for revenge, rage fueling his blades as each of the giants he faced were brought down one by one.

"My boy," Agostino started, "he knows you are closer than ever to finishing him off. If not you, rumor has it there's a female in the city that has him cornered." The elder mercenary laughed as he removed the blue piece of fabric from around the top of his head and wiped the sweat that beaded on the rest of his face now from the strong ale he drank.

Ezio's ears perked at the words of the mercenary captain, "Prego? What do you mean there's a female in the city? Who is she? What does she look like?" His mind had been, as of late, torn between thoughts of the mystery woman he had met on the rooftop of the church and how he was going to scale the Maffei's tower. Agostino's mention of her seemed to distract his mind long enough for him to breathe.

Agostino laughed heartily once more, his voice booming in the small space, "Ah-ha my boy, though I've heard mixed things of her, I can tell you this for sure; she's more trouble than she's worth." He clapped a hand on Ezio's back hard knocking the wind out of him momentarily.

"I need to know how much trouble she's going to cause me, Agostino," Ezio coughed, his lips curling into a sly smile, "after all, if she's pretty enough she may become my next conquest."

The mercenary captain lifted his mug, "To pretty women! May God never let us live without them!" he cheered.

"Or with them!" another one of Agostino's men piped up, the room erupting into laughter before the same man began singing.

Ezio shook his head; it was obvious that the small detachment of mercenario his uncle had sent to provide some form of cover were clearly more content to down tankards of ale and wine than they were to down a guard or two for his sake. He rubbed his left temple, the headache he had been trying so diligently to fend off slowly intensifying from last night. If there was one thing he knew for certain, it was that when he returned to the villa he was going to partake in a bottle of wine and sleep for several days in the large four post bed he seemed to be seeing less and less of.

A female voice, coarse and heavily laden with an accent Ezio was most assuredly not familiar with, spoke from the shadows of a heavy cloak. "Boy, ya wish to know this Crimson Ghost better?" a chair shot out from a table near the door, "Sit."

His body tensed, "No grazie, madonna. I don't talk to strangers," he said, casting a momentary glance in her direction before his hand reached for the door handle.

"Listen, smart arse, I knew yer father, son. So sit down...Auditore," the woman said, heavily annoyed at the offhanded glance he gave her. Nobles, every damned one of them were the same, so quick to judge, quick to snub their noses at those society rejected.

His breath caught in his chest as she hissed his last name, "So, you knew of an Auditore, there are several in Italia madonna, and guess what. They're all dead."

* * *

The night was cold, the sky so black it seemed that even the stars themselves failed to flicker to life. It was impossible to see, impossible to breathe, impossible...to move! Her heart raced hard in her chest as she tried to struggle against her bonds but to no avail; her arms secured to a post behind her, feet chained to cold steel bars in front of her. She tried to open her eyes; a faint flame flickered just out of her field of vision, God how her eyes stung. She shifted a little more only to feel all too familiar pain rip through her body; eyes wide open as her heart stopped. _No, no God please not again, not this...not this_ she thought, her mind racing as she found herself trapped in a cell, blood stained cloth hanging from her by threads. Fear gripped her as she thrashed against the ropes, her own muffled screams the only sounds she heard until he appeared. The fat man smiled wickedly, "Still so fiery even after all our sessions together," his words hissed through Spanish lips. His purple clad form drifted through the bars, a demon ghost grinning and laughing all she heard as he lunged at her, hands around her neck as he choked her...

"No!" she screamed, her body flung bolt upright from wall of wood she had been leaning against. She looked at both hands quickly, a sigh of relief as she found herself able to move freely. Her head leaned back, her azure gaze catching the moonlight as she saw nothing but moon and stars above her as she panted heavily still. Anna reached into her pocket and found the silver trinity knot necklace she had found at the blacksmith's shop in Monterigioni after she received word that her mother had been slaughtered, needlessly, at Templar hands. It was not the same as her mother's, but it was the last physical thing she had in this world to cling to, a tangible connection through the misty veils between this life and the next.

The trinket safely in her hand, head bowed, she recited the path of scripture that had sung true to her since her captivity in her head. _"The Lord is my shepherd, I will not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; he leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me, your rod and your staff they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen."_ Anna was never one to be considered religious; she sure as hell refused to attend church after seeing what the 'true' church was capable of. Yet even in light of that fact, there was one part of the Psalm that she took comfort in; the valley of the shadow was a path she continuously walked, knowing from the day of her escape to her chance encounter with Giovanni, that someone, some supreme being watched her closely. She felt it.

With a heavy sigh she stood inside the rooftop gazebo, a quiet groan leaving her lips as she stretched her back, arms at full length away from her sides. How long had it been since she last set foot in a city where she did not have to sleep in some rooftop hole or gutter in an alley, but instead could curl up in a bed of down or buckwheat. _Even if I was offered a bed, I'd more than likely find the floor more comfortable._ Cautiously, she jumped out of her resting place and onto the tiles of the roof, glancing down at the shadow cast by the chimney to her right. _Another hour before shift change, guess I'd better make for the center of town_ she thought as she shifted her bow and quiver on her back. When this was done, she would visit Mario once more perhaps. After all, it had been too long.

* * *

The candle on the table illuminated the lower half of the woman's face, her crimson lips curled up into a smile as she spoke, "Ah, but four of ya are breathing. Am I right...Ezio?"

He turned his head to the right, eyes narrowed as he appraised the woman. "Alright, let us say you do know who I am and you do know my father. What is it you think I want to know of this, Crimson ghost as you call her?" Ezio saw no red aura about the woman; no it was an off color as if he was seeing a spirit.

The woman smiled as Ezio sat, "Good, now that I have yer undivided attention, son. Let me give ya a general idea of what yer up against." She placed a black gloved hand on the table as she leaned forward, careful to keep her head lowered enough to hide her eyes from his sight. "She's fast, agile. Like a fox on the ground only on the rooftops, easy ta spot, even easier ta lose. She's always been that way, even when she was in training. I remember because I used ta be the one who had to patch her up when she fell, her mentor was hard on the wee one. Too hard, some days I said. You've probably seen her with them arrows o' her's, yeah?" she grinned, unable to hide how pleased she was.

Ezio nodded, brows furrowed, "She's unlike any archer I've had dealings with," he said. His brief encounter with her on the church days ago had been proof of how little he truly knew of the world. Two years ago he had been in Firenze, wining and dining the ladies during the day before he'd slip into the Christina's room for a night of making the woman he loved more than anything cry his name in hushed tones into the night air. Now, he was caught in the middle of a conspiracy that seemed to get even darker and more twisted the more he delved into it. How he wished Christina was here with him.

"There's a reason she's so damned good with those arrows o' her's. She's gifted, from the time she was born ta now. It's an aptitude that even her teacher had no idea where it came from, or why her. There were rumors ya know, rumors that she comes from special blood, an' it was because of that he trained her so hard," she said. Memories of the girl's childhood flooded her mind, causing her to reach a hand up to her temple, a tear forming in her eye.

Ezio lofted a brow, "Gifted?" he said quizzically. So he wasn't truly a freak of nature, there was another with a skill set that defied all society deemed as normal. But how was that possible?

"That girl...that beautiful thing has seen more blood than you can imagine. This, Maffei man, she's had him in her sights for so long now," the woman could hide her tears no more as they fell ever so freely from her eyes, "it's consumed her. Mind, body, and soul; she's a shade of the girl she used ta be. All she wants to be is saved and there's no one out there who'll do it."

He was taken aback by the woman's tears, pain apparent in her voice as she spoke, "I'm sorry, I don't understand..."

The woman looked up, her eyes shimmered a brilliant blue as the hood shifted from her face enough for the candle light to hit them. "Ezio, go. She'll hate you for getting there before she does, you have to break her, bring her back into this reality. You'll have to fight her, but you have to save her from the darkness that wants to consume her, eat her alive," her heart shattered in her chest as she spoke. "Go."

He stood from the table, confused. Who the hell was this woman? The way she spoke she was far closer to the woman than any servant, but then again the maid that worked for his family for so long loved them like her own family. "How can I beat her at a game she seems to be more versed in than I am?" he asked.

The woman looked to him, "She'll be too busy setting up Maffei for the fall. She'll be taking out the archers the bastard's bound to have surrounding his tower. Take that opportunity to start climbing, but stay yer blade long enough for her to see you kill him. She'll be too dumb founded to move for a bit, but once she comes to be on your guard, boy. She'll do one of two things, kill you or challenge you and my guess," she did a once over of him, "she'll challenge you."

Ezio nodded, "Grazie madonna, a little information is better than nothing at this point." He moved to grab the door when the woman reached her hand out, taking him by the wrist.

"And boy, remember, the things we do for those we love 'oft times don't make sense, but we know in the end it is for the betterment of the one we love that we do them," she said, giving his wrist a quick squeeze before letting him go.

He lofted a brow, "Grazie," he said and darted from the tavern. He was too far to make the gate before guard change on foot. Ezio had only move around to the side of the building to find a black stallion drinking at a trough. Quickly he mounted the horse, "We need to get to the gate real quick and in a hurry. Hah!"

* * *

Anna sighed as she looked skyward, three guards dead and hidden from the next shift and it still felt like she had thirty to go. In truth, she had only another twelve, but she was so close to watching Maffei fall that each guard felt as if she put another day between her and that inquisitor. Not to mention, how she hated climbing insanely tall buildings. San Gimigiano was riddled with the damned things, and of course the coward would have to pick the tallest of them all to spout his religious falsities and bullish nonsense. Her eyes scanned the sky, the sun slowly beginning to break over the hills and trees, illuminating wire tracks that connected four of the city's five towers together. She would have to climb each tower, beginning with the shortest first in order to clear a path for herself; the towers were too far apart for her to perch on one of them to clear the other three including the platform that sat beneath the roof that her target stood on.

Ezio gasped as he came to a sliding halt on an adjoining rooftop from where the crimson clad female stood. He had followed her from the point where she had emerged from a rooftop hiding place to the roof she now stood on. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he swore he heard her groan and mumble something about heights. _For all of your mysterious talents, madonna, I think I found your weakness._

She grabbed a foothold on a protruding stone as her right hand came up to grab another stone above her, pulling herself up as she began to scale the shortest of the four towers. The wind began to blow harder, the air grew colder with each story she scaled as did her blood as anger began to flow through her as freely as she would allow. Before she threw herself over the edge she removed her bow from her back and with a breath she closed her eyes.

Anna pulled herself over the top, her right hand reached behind her as the two guards took a moment to realize what was happening. Enough time for her instincts to kick in, arrow on the bowstring, tension applied with a quick release. The first of the two fell as she hit center mass, the second fired a shot which she had only to drop, spin and fire her own reply. Two down, ten to go as she leapt down from the edge, landing squarely on the wire that connected the shortest of the four to the third tallest she had stood on five days ago.

The same performance followed for the other two towers, a pivot here, a drop there and each of the remaining guards dropped where they stood until only four remained; the four who stood on the platform beneath Maffei. Ezio was astounded by how gracefully she moved she was like a bird dancing high on the wind. She twisted, turned, dropped, spun, and killed each guard she encountered. He was fast that he was certain of, but nowhere near as fast as she was.

As she opened her eyes as everything slowed down, timing seemingly coming to a standstill. She could see it clear as day. From the mid-point on the wire, she launched an arrow, a solid hit to his exposed rib cage, through the lung between the bones. The second guard turned and continued his circuit of patrol when he noticed his friend lying face down on the wooden planks that made up their platform. While she waited for the guard to kneel, neck stretched as he investigated the body, her hand found an arrow that begged to be used on the guard and how could she deny such a beautiful thing the blood it so richly deserved. The arrow flew from the bow with a whisper as the air passed over the shaft and through the feathers of the end before it passed through the guard's neck, the tip missing the cartilaginous covering of the trachea as it pierced both arteries on either side.

It was a good enough assurance for her.

Anna moved, first arrow from the wire, perfect hit. The guard twitched, his partner came, second arrow, same thing. She ran across the wire, body pressed to the far right side of the wall as she grabbed another arrow from the quiver behind her. The wood beneath her feet creaked as she heard the scuff of the third guard's boots on the roof. Arrow against the string she spun left, the arrow flew from her hand and hit the third guard so hard it knocked him clean off the platform. The fourth gasped and it was a quick draw for her, the arrow hitting his left shoulder but again hard enough to send him screaming off the platform.

Anna stopped, spun on her heel and looked on in horror at the visage of the white clad boy she had saved back on the church's rooftop there, on the wire. How in the hell had he managed to shadow her without her knowledge?

"You!" she snarled softly. Her blood boiled, her rage came to a head and all she had to do was fire one shot, just one shot and she'd finish his suffering once and for all. She quick stepped to the edge where the end of the wire connected to the platform, reached behind her and found an arrow. _No, Anna stop, don't do it. He did nothing to deserve this. Leave him be._ No matter how bad she wanted to, when their eyes met she failed to have the nerve to do it as the voice of her father echoed in her head. _The man you should be focused on is above you, not in front of you._ She shook her head and took to the wall once more, bow on her back as she dangled from the edge. Anna had a special weapon, with Maffei's name written all over it.

Ezio could only watch, unable to move as she once more had him in her sights. He searched her, their eyes met, and for a split moment he saw the same blood lust, the same darkness he felt growing deeper inside of his heart. Something about being so close to the man who was a part of the plot to overthrow his family stirred the dragon he was quickly coming to know and to feel within him. Then he watched as in that darkness a pin prick of light, the darkness faltering as she dropped her arrow, spun on her heel and began to climb the remainder of the tower to the top. He quickly moved into position, waiting for her to do what the woman said she would if she would do it at all.

Maffei snarled, "Demon! Heathen! Witch! Have you come to murder a man of God, you Satanist?" His eyes were haunted as he cowered away from the ghost he saw only in his waking nightmares.

Anna leapt over the edge, "The Bible speaks of serpents like you, those who dress in fine linens and still do nothing to help their fellow man," she hissed. Tears fought to make their way out of her eyes, "Do you remember me?"

The man narrowed his eyes, searching his memory for her voice. "No...It...It can't be!" His eyes widened as she advanced him further, "You're dead! Ghost!"

"Yes it is! That precious little girl you so willingly ravaged day in and day out," She ripped off her cloak, her hair falling to her lower back in a cascade of deep blood red curls, her olive hued skin kissed by the early morning light of dawn. Her eyes shimmered against the sun, a sharp shade of chilling blue, so cold it rocked Maffei to his core. "Me! Nastassia Grigorios! You tortured me! Raped me! Took me away from everything I knew!" Her eyes burned with tears of pure rage as she screamed, "And now you die!"

She lunged, only to see him fall in front of her. Ezio laid Maffei down gently to the ground, whispering something to the man while she looked on in horror, unable to breathe as she watched him close the inquisitor's eyes and stand.

"Nastassia..." he whispered, "please..."

She shook her head, "No, you...you killed him." Anna back pedaled, so much anger inside of her that her entire body trembled, skin burning. "You killed him...and I..." she whispered hoarsely. "You," her eyes glinted as she glared at him, "how _dare_ you utter my name." She back stepped onto the ledge, her feet taking the two steps to the end of the eagle's perch behind her, "Ezio Auditore, I challenge you to a duel in the middle of Santa Maria della Fiore three days from now! If you do not show up, I will consider you an enemy and will have NO qualms of ending your miserable little existence. I will ensure that you die the slowest of deaths for the wrong you have done to me!" she yelled at him.

Ezio couldn't believe what he was hearing. Was this girl serious? "Nastassia, listen to me! I had to do it and it had to be done this way!" He had the information he needed, he knew Jacopo de'Pazzi was due to meet with two men in the middle of the town later today, "If you'll just listen...maybe we..."

She narrowed her eyes towards him as she leaned down, cloak in hand as she picked it up from the stone of the roof, "Good bye Auditore...I will see you in three days!" She pitched herself over the edge once more and for a split second envisioned herself ending it all. Anna was done with this; she was no closer now to the closure she so desperately sought than she had been five years ago when she was imprisoned by Maffei. She hit the hay stack with a _poof_ and quickly exited the hay, making for the wall. She needed a drink...or two before she 'borrowed' another horse from a villager and made for Florence.


	3. Chapter 3 Truths Revealed Yet Hidden

The ride back from San Gimigiano to the villa in Monterigioni felt longer this time than it really truly was. The sky flashed white, a silver streak of light raced through the clouds and down to the earth, thunder growled from on high like a bear in the mountains. Sheet after sheet of rain fell on Ezio, the wind howled through the tree tops and across the mud roads. _Damn these late summer rains, _he thought as he shivered against the chill. His cape did little to keep the rest of him from getting soaked and that did nothing to hide the fact that his body ached from lack of sleep, wincing as he sat upright in the saddle of the black stallion he had 'borrowed' from the countryside. Try as he might, he could not get his lower back to stretch for anything which made him long to have Christina's hands on him once more.

Whether he had been involved in a fist fight, he had fallen from a rooftop, or it was a just-because-I-can Christina had always been quick to offer a massage to him. Inevitably that would ultimately lead to both being completely undressed and that had its advantages, but that wasn't the point. It was a good feeling to know that a woman out there cared so much for him, aside from his mother, regardless of the quote unquote 'bad reputation' his family had. There had been many noble families in Firenze that had questioned the Auditore claim to nobility; some even went so far as to publicly criticize their ties by saying his great grandfather had lied about his true identity when he had come to the city and that he assumed the identity of another long-dead man.

"Nipote, what in the hell are you doing out here in the rain? Why aren't you holing up in San Gimigiano in that inn I told you about?" Mario stepped out of the double doors of the city, "You weren't supposed to be back until tomorrow." Had Ezio been crazy enough to ride all night in the storms that had been ripping through the countryside?_ He is his father's son._

His chide was fatherly, but still it was the last thing he wanted to hear. "Plans have changed, Uncle," Ezio said.

The horse slid to a halt in front of the elder man, a single brown gloved hand raised to protect his right eye, his good eye, from the rain. A little bit of water no longer phased Mario's left eye, the sword that had long ago nicked open both eye and outer part of its socket had done well enough to stop that factor. He shifted uneasily in his brown tunic, "What do you mean plans have changed, Ezio?"

Ezio sighed, "Seems I've made a new 'friend' while I was in the city," he said as he rolled his eyes. Lightning streaked across the sky once more and the stallion reared slightly, "Can we get me out of this weather, now?"

Mario laughed, "Of course, m'lady," he said as he offered a sweeping bow, "Come down off that...high horse of yours so we can speak like men."

Ezio shook his head, a lopsided smile on his face as he laughed softly. After all he had been through; a little bit a humor seemed to ease the heaviness that threatened to stop him in his tracks. First it had been the conspirators, and then there was that, that...girl. _Will it ever end?_ He dismounted the horse and followed his uncle into the village through the heavy oak doors that took four mercenario to close behind them, the resounding thud all he heard as Mario addressed his concern as the two men began to walk and talk.

"So tell me, nipote. Who is this 'friend' you made while you were off wiping our enemies out of existence, hm?" Mario said as he clasped his hand behind his lower back, elongating his strides to keep up with his nephew. The younger Auditore was a near shoulder above him, thus making Ezio's strides longer than his own, no big challenge but frustrating still; he wasn't getting any younger.

Ezio sighed, "A woman," he said, exasperation evident in his tone as the two walked past the shops that now stood closed due to the weather, the streets empty as the rain continued to pour.

"When do you not ever befriend a woman, Ezio?" Mario laughed as they approached the sweeping, dual staircase that split to the left and to the right of the training arena above street level.

"But not just any woman, uncle; this one was different from the way she carried herself to the way she dressed," Ezio shook his head, opting to take the left staircase.

Mario's brows knitted together, "What do you mean different?" he said as he stopped short of the first stair, standing beside the ornately carved, vine covered Assassin's symbol on the brick wall that had been placed there by his grandfather when the villa was first built so many years ago.

Ezio stopped and turned, "Meaning the woman didn't look as if she belonged in Italia first off and second she looked more like an Assassin."

_No, she couldn't still be in Italia, could she?_ Mario thought, concern beginning to creep inside of him before he continued to walk. "Describe her to me, Ezio. In detail and leave nothing out," he said as he climbed the stairs behind his nephew.

"She was tall, and lean, dressed head to toe in black except for the crimson cloak, hood, and odd facial veil," Ezio said as he completed the climb of the second set of stairs and now approached the door of the villa.

Mario fell silent, lost in his thoughts. He had gotten word from Agostino that Ezio had experienced a run in with a crimson clad female in San Gimigiano and at the time, he had thought nothing more of it; his nephew was always quick to find himself a new girl with which to...well, bed so to speak. That was in his nature. Now, to hear tell in distinct description of what she looked like, suspicion began to come to mind of a young woman he had once promised to protect but who left out of anger and claim that he had broken his promise to her.

"Uncle," Ezio started as he removed his hood, glad to be in the warmth and comfort of the villa as Mario closed the door behind them, shutting out the wind that whipped and seemingly groaned over the aging exterior of the three story villa. "Uncle, are you alright? Do you know her?" The question seemed absurd; why would Mario have had dealings with a psychotic woman like her?

"My boy, I am fine," Mario said as he came to his senses. "Go on up to your room, I'll have the servants fetch you a warm bath and then get some rest, you deserve it for a job well done."

Ezio nodded, not satisfied with his uncle's reply. What was the old man hiding? "As you wish, uncle, perhaps I can come find you in the study, later?" he said.

"In the morning, yes for I am an old man, Ezio," Mario smiled tiredly, "and old men do not think well when they are sleep deprived."

* * *

The rain pelted Anna as she rode through the night to the far side of Florence but she did not feel it, thunder growled and lightning flashed but she neither heard nor saw it. A chill threatened to seep deep into her body from the winds that howled around her, but she did not acknowledge its existence. No, she felt or saw nothing outside of her mind. The moment played like some nightmarish existence, some past life vision over and over again in her mind's eye and it made her skin burn, heart throbbing with a white hot rage that threatened the melt it into oblivion. "Hah!" she screamed. Her mind filled with a darkness that had been all too familiar to her, her body numb as she arrived at the gates of the city.

She no longer cared who saw her, who mocked her, who ran away from her visage in terror or who gave chase. Blood...was all she desired, the only thing that would satiate the hell driven lust that had been left to stir within her soul. _Who are you, now?_ The voice echoed within the boundaries of her skull but it did nothing to sway her as her right hand came up and dislodged the facial veil she wore across her lower face before she pushed the hood of her crimson cloak back. Anger drove her steps as she ran through the San Marco district, tears streaking down her face as she plowed through the few people who dared walk the streets in the downpour. Oh the names that assaulted her ears as noble, priest, and poor person alike served to keep the flame alive as she arrived at the back side of the church that sat in the middle of the San Giovanni district.

Her steps slowed as she walked from the back of the church to the front door where a priest was busy about closing the doors. Anna had a bone to pick with a certain supreme being and she was going to make damned sure that she had her say.

"We are closed, child. Come back tomorrow when the rain has let up," the man said, eyes cast down to look at the red haired female.

"I had a vision once, I saw a day where the church no longer closed her doors on the needy, where the church opened her arms to them both day and night as the Christ had during his ministry on Earth," Anna said as she lowered her head, her right hand finding the dagger she had clung to when she faced Maffei for the first time in five long years.

"My child, we operate just the same with the exception of foul weather. Go on home, I am sure your family will be wondering where you are," the priest said as he once more resumed the closing of the church's heavy door.

The priest had only been making an innocent remark, but it only caused her to remember what that stronzo back in San Gimigiano had done. Had it not been the church, the same church that had at one time sworn to uphold the virtues of God and his commandments only to turn tail as it always had and do the opposite. Anna's hand shot out, "Do you not comprehend what you are doing? You are denying the hopeless sanctuary, and that is against God's word," she snapped. The door hit her hand hard with the first step she took to advance the man; pain filled her wrist which drew only a sadistic smile to her face.

The man back pedaled, how was this woman able to overpower his attempt to shut the door? "Madonna, I will call the guard if you do not leave, now." Still she pushed further in, now through the door.

Anna was blinded by hatred, "Was it not enough that your ilk ripped me from my family, tore us apart and then left me to die? Now you stand here and deny my right to enter a house of God?" she cried as she reached out and grabbed the man by the collar of his robes, the dagger's tip only a breath away from plunging straight through his head from chin to nasal cavity. "Requiescat in pace you figlio de putana," she snarled and with one solid thrust the priest fell limp in her hands.

"I did it...I killed you, you...you..."she was unable to finish as lightning struck the top of the church, thunder crashed so loud around the structure that even the chandeliers swayed to and fro from the ceiling as she let go of the innocent man. His blood ran red across the marble tiles and her eyes looked down to see the man's panic stricken face. _What have you done? Anna, don't look away. See what you have done._

All the anger, all the hatred, the resentment and pain, it all blinded her to the point that she herself could not see the demon she was quickly becoming. It had started with the boy on the wire and it had finally come full circle here, within the holy confines of the church of Santa Maria del Fiore.

Her blood covered hand curled into a tight fist, "I...don't...care!" she hissed, her body once more shaking, trembling hard from both chill and anger. Anna's eyes lifted to the end of the church, where a single wooden cross stood, a vision of Christ's blood covered body hung from the beams as it had over fourteen hundred years ago on the days of his crucifixion. "You _lied_ to me," she snarled as she took a position within the center of the church. "You promised me, that day when I nearly bled to death on the stone floor of the prison that you would protect us," she said simply, her right hand unclasped the cloak that threatened to choke her from the weight it had gained in the rain. "You promised me you would make all the pain go away as the Spaniard and Maffei raped me day in and day out," she said as she ripped the facial veil off of the cloak. Her left hand reached behind her to the quiver on her back, not caring if one called to her or not as she plucked an arrow at random from it and wrapped the fabric around it, saying , "But this...this is how you save me, by letting some adulterous boy kill Maffei."

Anna knocked over a nearby oil burner, flame sputtering as the oil it had once contained spilled onto the floor and mixed with the blood of fallen priest. "You, Father, truly do work in mysterious ways, I will give you that," she said as she dipped the crimson cloth into the oil, "but you know what..." she put the arrow against the string, tension applied as she lit the end ablaze by the flame emitting from a twin oil burner that stood opposite of the one now on the ground. "So...do...**I**." She brought the arrow up and released the string, the arrow flying through the air and hitting Christ square in the chest, burning cloth dripping from the wound to the base where the cross finally caught fire.

Christ in flames, she advanced the altar where the now dead man had once stood and preached his sermon every mass; she knew that somewhere deep within she would spend the rest of her lifetime paying penance for the sins she committed here tonight. Her mind screamed at her to not forsake the hand of the being that saved her five years ago, but her heart was quick to muffle its pleas as her chest ached. She could take no more, "Where are you now?" she whispered hoarsely, her knees giving beneath her as she hit the marble hard. Dagger in hand, she cut the lacings of the bracer on her left forearm to roll up the sleeve of her black blouse. There, in the light of the flames a single letter and two numbers came into sight: P23. Tears streamed down her cheeks once more as she rolled up the sleeve of her right forearm, olive kissed skin virgin still as she did once more as she had in the jail cell, this time quoting another passage. _"After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed his birth saying, 'May the day perish on which I was born and the night in which it is said that a child is conceived. That day, may it turn into darkness, may God above not care about it and may no light shine upon it. May darkness and deep shadow claim it once more, may a cloud settle over it, may blackness overwhelm its light," _as she spoke she took the dagger's tip and carved into her flesh the book and chapter from whence the words came; J3 for Job chapter three. She hissed, a trickle of crimson leaving her as she continued to speak softly the rest of the chapter.

* * *

Ezio had been unable to sleep as his Uncle had wished, his thoughts consumed with the woman in the city of San Gimigiano. What had the woman in the tavern meant by 'You have to save her'? There were plenty of other men out there who were more than capable of saving a young woman from single handedly destroying her life, there had to be. Yet the woman made it sound as if it was him and only him who could do it. His mind swam with the various possibilities of what he had to face now. Insecurities nagged him, tugging at the strings of his subconscious and whispering thoughts of doubt as to whether he would be able to handle the vixen or not.

"As if I didn't already have enough merda to deal with on my own," he sighed, "now I'm being tasked with having to save a rabid fox from itself."

Yes, the rabid fox. Yet even in her moment of severe anger, there was something beautiful about her. The sun had been positioned just right in the sky to let him see her eyes once more; those breathtakingly awe inspiring ice blue eyes that poets wrote sonnets about. He remembered how clearly the sun illuminated her olive hued skin, revealing a long white scar that had ran down the right side of her neck from her ear to her shoulder and the two large white dots just above her collar bone near the center of her throat that matched the two just beneath her chin. Ezio could only wonder why Antonio had wanted her and more importantly, what had he done to her during her captivity to stir such heart wrenching anger from the young woman.

"Ezio? Are you awake?" The voice was hushed and soft, but familiar as a tired smile crossed his face. He shifted the blankets on the elaborate four post bed, pulling them farther around his hips before he propped himself up on his elbows. "Si, come in sister."

Claudia hesitantly opened the door and stood in nothing more than her gown and a robe, brown eyes searching the faint light of a cloud covered morning that came into her brother's room from the east window. "Ezio, uncle wanted me to tell you to dress. He said there's a lot to talk about before breakfast," she said.

Ezio nodded, "Tell him I'll be there shortly," he said as he sat up fully.

He heard the door close behind him and with a glance over his shoulder to reaffirm his sister had left; he flipped the blankets back and hurriedly dressed. Within minutes he was clothed for the most part, opting to avoid his doublet and armor until they had been cleaned and repaired as he welcomed the fresh cream colored linen shirt and clean black pants. The bath had been most welcomed earlier when he had arrived at the villa and had done much to cleanse the grit and grime of his recent adventure away, though it had done nothing to cleanse his mind of the thoughts that still raced through it. Quickly he slipped his boots on and left his room, careful to close the door quietly knowing that his mother had yet to stir. It had been two years since it all had happened and still she spent the days in her room in shock, unable to speak or truly move and she ate so very little. With each day his concern for her health grew and grew.

His world seemed as dismissal as the clouds outside the villa, grey and heavy and on days like these he felt as if he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. He had avenged his father and brothers deaths, but still the conspiracy seemed to run deeper than it did with the introduction of the 'Maestro' and now the Barbarigos. His sister still asked when they would be able to return to Firenze and in truth, he had no idea if they would ever be able to return or if they would ever be safe again. His uncle demanded so much of his free time when he arrived back to villa between assignments in training, that it felt as if he had little to no room to breathe. Then there was Christina and God knew how bad he wanted her here with him now, but she had made it perfectly clear to him the day of his family's deaths that she was more worried about her family than she was about their relationship. He could not blame her, but in the same regard he had so desperately wished she would have come with him. He could have protected her here, she could have lived with them here, she would have been better off here where at least he knew she would have been safe.

"Ezio, there you are my boy. Come join me in my study, I feel like having breakfast here this morning," Mario said as Anetta parted company with him with a short curtsey. By the looks of his nephew who stood at the top of the main staircase, he could tell that the boy had been just as deprived of sleep as he was. He had spent the better part of the night tossing and turning as his mind played over and over the events that had happened at the villa five years ago.

Mario's beckoning shook Ezio from his thoughts as he jogged down the main staircase and followed his uncle into the study. A heavy sigh escaped him, "Did you manage to come up with anything about the girl?" he asked as the pair walked through the door of his uncle's study. Unlike the other rooms of the villa where each had at one time been adorned with decorative papering, each wall was covered by heavy oak bookcases that contained books from all over antiquity and still were in better shape than the wallpaper was. The villa itself had been left to the ravages of time and atmospheric conditions, both inside and out. _She's a mere shade of the girl she used to be_ the woman's voice echoed once more in his thoughts _kind of like this old villa._

Mario sat heavily down in the old oak chair behind the intricately carved oak desk. Both were as old as the villa and much to his dismay but with use, he had ensured that both were well taken care of, to include a new layer of lacquered every year to keep moisture from penetrating and eventually rotting the wood. The once rich tapestry fabric that had covered the cushioning of the high backed chair was faded and worn from the many nights he had poured over strategic schematics during the time he had spent at war with Firenze. "Pull up a chair, Ezio. There was something you failed to tell me," he said.

"And what is that uncle?" Ezio said as he flopped in a matching chair across from his uncle, musk and mold and age the three scents that threatened to make him gag before Anetta reappeared with a breakfast consisting of poached quail eggs, three strips of ham, fresh made rosemary and butter bread and to his surprise venison. His stomach was not afraid to voice its displeasure in his lack of nutrition while he had been in the towered city, and he could but oblige as he smiled at the woman who poured him a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice. Before he brought the glass to his nose he caught a whiff of something odd, alcohol? "Uncle, seriously? This early in the morning?" he said as he laughed.

Mario laughed, "It's never too early to start the day with a kick. By the way, you paid for the champagne," he said. "Anyways, you failed to make mention of the girl's name. Did you catch it?" he inquired as he bit into a quail egg.

Ezio nodded, "I did, just before she leapt off of the tower," he said in between bites of venison. The meat melted in his mouth and was effortless to swallow and the champagne mixed with the orange juice was a nice pairing with it, though unusual. "She said her name was Nastassia Gri...Gri...it didn't sound Italiano that is for sure," he said just before he caught a glimpse of the quick fade of color from his uncle's face. "Uncle?" he asked.

"Her name is Nastassia Grigorios; it's not Italiano but is in fact Greek. Her father was a good friend of your father and I, he was there the day you were born you know, as the attending physician according to Giovanni," Mario said as he paired an egg with a slice of ham.

"Greek? A Greek physician? How did you and father know him?" Ezio asked.

Mario smirked, "Because boy, he was one of us; an Assassin and damned good one at that," he said before he finished the eggs and ham and moved onto the venison meat. He would have to commend Anetta on her handling with the deer and her readiness to make something so complex for them so early in the morning. "The codex pages on the wall, his wife decoded them for us. She was an Irish courtesan with a certain...talent for languages. Neither she or Demitrios, or both your father and I knew where it stemmed from until Demitrios said his daughter possessed an odd gift as well."

Ezio finished the plate of food, bread and all, before he leaned back in the chair, brows furrowed in thought. "It seems as if gifted children are not uncommon for people with Assassin ties," he said and his uncle nodded in agreement. "She's the best archer I have seen," he said with an unstated admiration for her. She may be crazier than the animal she embodied, but he had to give credit where credit was due.

"Or ever _will_ see boy, but while I could sit here and ramble all day about our misadventures, it defeats the point on what you need to know," Mario had finished his breakfast as well, a heavy sigh leaving his lips as he leaned back against the chair, "She grew up in the order, lived, ate, and breathed this order until she was thirteen when she was captured and tortured..." to his surprise Ezio finished his thought.

"By Antonio Maffei I assume. I put that much together a few days ago when I killed him and she damned near killed me for it," Ezio said, "She spouted off something about being raped and being taken away from everything she had known." He sighed as he shook his head, "The woman challenged me to a dual in a church two days from now. It won't be a fair fight."

Mario laughed, "Damn right it won't be a fair fight, boy she could kick you into Venezia before you knew what happened. She's spent a lifetime of training and you're horribly unequipped to manage her," he said.

"Ah, she isn't that good is she?" Ezio laughed but he found his uncle's smile quickly faded as he stared at him from across the desk. His laugh drifted as he asked once more, "Is she?"

Mario smirked, snorting as he folded his arms across his chest, "Ezio do you remember going to market when the traders from the east were there?"

Ezio thought back, "The last time I saw them I was seven. The ones with the weird birds, the colorful rugs and the odd spices if I remember correctly, right?" His mother had insisted he and Fredrico escort her through the market; their father had taken Claudia to see the sleek horses from the desert that came on the Arab ships.

Mario nodded, "There are a group of monks that travel infrequently with the caravans, according to Demitrios, from the Far East and he said they were the ones who taught him what he knew and thus he passed it on to his daughter during training. She doesn't fight like you or I do, she fights instead with these," he said as he patted his thighs. "Her feet are fists, her legs her arms and she is a force to be reckoned with."

Ezio smirked, "So she cheats, what woman doesn't when she fights with a man?" he laughed. A woman who fights was a rare occurrence, but not unthinkable given his encounter with Nastassia that night on the church. She seemed so much more approachable and less apt to pinning him against the wall with a volley of arrows then and if circumstances were different, maybe he would have pursued her. But now, all thought of that was gone.

Besides, he still had Christina and even though it had been two years who was to say she would not return back to the Villa with him this time.

Mario shook his head, when would Ezio learn? _Perhaps feeding him to she-wolf will do him some good and bring him back down to Earth_ he thought, "Meet me in the arena in an hour, Ezio. We have more training to do." He knew a little of what Nastassia had shown him during her time with him at the villa, now the question was; how to train Ezio when he had no tools or another woman who fights like she does to train him with?

"Yes, Mario," Ezio sighed. _Oh joy, more training._


	4. Chapter 4 Odysseus vs David

The first rays of dawn crept over Florence's eastern wall, a few stray clouds from the storm that had wreaked havoc on the countryside casting long shadows as the sun rose higher into the morning sky. The view was awash with the brightest reds and oranges the citizens had seen. Some stood amazed by the hues that danced amongst the silver lined clouds while others still shook their heads in abhorrence of the color; to them it was an omen that evil once more had stricken their beloved Firenze. To the few who walked the stone streets in the city's central San Giovanni District and took note of the fiery sky, their fears of the omen came to fruition.

Cries of guards scattering to the scene of a brutal murder echoed through the alley ways as they made for the Santa Maria del Fiore. The vicar general, Father Jean-Ambrose III, found the once great wooden cross that had stood sentient just beyond the alter in a pile of still smoldering ash, nothing stood of the gift that had been bestowed to him by the Holy See upon his appointment to Santa Maria del Fiore. Yet that had not been why he had called the guard's attention so early into their shift, he could have cared less for the eye sore.

It had been what he had found by the door of the church that had struck panic into his heart. His eyes had found a gruesome sight this morning as he followed the trail of clues that consisted of a shattered oil burner and a small pool of blood near the ash in front of the church. There, on the floor lay his assistant priest awash in a sticky, crimson substance this morning just as the woman had declared. His eyes, white with death's sheen and wide in terror, his mouth agape in shock, his body not more than a stiff shadow of its former self.

The black clad doctore stood, head lowered as he removed his first and second finger away from the man's neck and crossed himself. "I...am so sorry, Father. God has indeed taken him from this life to the next," he said somberly.

"Blessed Mary, who would commit such a horrid act? Surely their soul will burn for all eternity in the pit of hell," Ambrose hissed. This assignment by the Pope had its advantages to be sure, but it had also proven to be more of a thorn in his career as a member of the clergy. It happened like clockwork, first it was a cardinal five years ago, then a bishop three years after followed by several priests. Granted he had known the men and knew them to be less than honest during confession about their hypocrisy, but the poor man who had just arrived to the city was an honest man, a good man and a welcomed addition to the church. _It had been such a nice change to see a man who practiced what he had preached,_ the vicar thought. "Was it at least a painless death?" he asked.

The doctore nodded, "Indeed. It was a clean cut, through the jaw and into what appears to be his brain. He died almost instantaneously, I am sure."

"Thank the Heavenly Father then," Ambrose said as he made the sign of the cross, "Please, take his body with you, clean it up and prepare it. I will make arrangements for him to be picked up later today," he sighed. He was supposed to have only been in the city for a short time to check up on things, not have to plan a mass for a fallen brother.

"Father, if it is not too bold to ask, do you think it is the same person who has struck this church before?" the doctore asked.

Ambrose nodded, "The only difference is there is no scripture tied around his corpse." The others all had a single passage of scripture from Romans which said, '_And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them who do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape judgment from God?'_

The doctore nodded, bowing shortly as he waved his two assistants over, "Qui, take him to the cart. Attento ora," he said as the men, impressive in height and musculature, picked the limp body up with no issue. As they did, a slip of paper fell to the floor from the priest's pocket which held another passage from the book of Romans, _'Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written "Vengeance is mine, I will repay says the Lord". I am here. Send him, send the Assassin.' _The doctore was quick to pocket the note.

One of the men, the taller of the two, leaned in close to the doctore and whispered, "Does that confirm that it was her?"

The doctore nodded, careful to speak in hushed tones, "Moltissimo, when we are finished return to il mentore and speak of what has transpired. If ever there was a time we needed the boy, it is now." He glanced behind him, eyes on the guard as they spoke to Father Ambrose and for a split moment he thought he saw a dark shadow pass behind them. A female, it appeared, with a dark smile painted on her blood stained face, gaze heavy as she watched the body of the priest roll away.

She was resigned to what lay ahead of her now. Punishment was sure to follow, and she prayed it would be justice well served.

* * *

"Great Uncle," Ezio said in exasperation. "Do you mind telling me how I'm supposed to train for a woman who uses her feet for fists? No one here has the knowledge of her fighting style, and I doubt Agostino has her flexibility." Could his situation get any worse?

Mario thought for a moment, holding his chin between his thumb and the crook of his first finger. How could he..."Ah-Ha! I have an idea! Anetta, bring me a pair of leggings my dear!"

"Leggings? Mario you can't be seriously considering dressing as a woman and fighting Ezio," Agostino declared from the edge of the ring, scratching his head in the process. "It makes no sense!"

Mario shook his head, running his left hand over his face before his head lowered, the end of his thumb placed on his temple as the rest of his hand rested on his forehead above his left eye. Was it any wonder why Ezio complained that his mercenarios were as dense as the brick walls that surrounded the village? He looked up at Ezio who was smiling smugly, the I-told-you-so look written ever so definitively on his young face. "No you idiota," Mario growled, "I don't plan on _dressing_ like a woman; I plan on _fighting_ like a woman."

The mercenary captain could not help the hurt look that crossed his face. "Oh...but..." Agostino was silenced by the hand that shot up from Ezio.

"Not...another...word. If we had wanted any of your in-depth insight to our dilemma we would have removed you from the rack," Ezio sighed as he rolled his eyes and folded his arms across his chest.

"Rack?" Agostino inquired, "What is this rack business?" he demanded.

"Never mind," Ezio said, the smug smile returning to his face once more.

"As you requested," Anetta smiled, "leggings for the signore. I think they're a lovely shade and would complement Ezio's attire quite nicely," she giggled and winked to Giovanni's second son. They were not far apart in age and were it not for the fact that she had dedicated her life to the service of his family she might have just had to...allow him to service her for a change. She curtsied and parted the company of the men. Claudia would more than likely be in need of solace as she crunched the near non-existent numbers of funding that trickled into the village.

Mario removed his sword breaker from his belt and sliced the leggings in half near the seam, "Ezio, here, you take one and I'll take the other and we'll fill them with fieno. Agostino, go fetch me two poles from the blacksmith."

Ezio lofted a brow as he took the silken object from his uncle, "Fieno?"

Mario smirked, "Trust me!"

Ezio had been right in his previous assumptions, it was about to get much worse as the two finished stuffing the leggings to the breaking point with hay from the cart in front of the villa. Agostino produced two steel poles, puzzled as always as to what Mario would do with them to which the elder Auditore only shook his head and shoved a rod in each legging before he wrapped a twine rope around each 'leg' to form a rudimentary lashing.

"Ah-Ha! See, did I not tell you, fight like a woman!" Mario said in triumph, his plan had worked perfectly. True, they may not have been spitting images but they would be enough to get his point across to his _coglione_ of a nephew.

Ezio rolled his eyes and unfolded his arms, mouth open to comment on how ridiculous his uncle looked with two, fieno-filled leggings when he found himself blind-sided by the left 'leg'. "Uncle, I wasn't..." another movement nearly knocked him to his knees as his uncle spun and knelt, the right 'leg' landing a solid blow to his outer thigh just above his knee.

"Ready? My boy, you spend too much time pondering when you should be watching," Mario called as Ezio scrambled to regain his footing, a prompt for another solid blow from the mock legs as he spun and landed it squarely on the boy's back. "The girl moves like a fox, watch how she dances. Learn to anticipate," he said.

"A rabid one maybe," Ezio said as regained his footing and side stepped another swing from Mario and his latest training apparatus.

"I can't argue with that one," Mario laughed before one of his mercenaries ran up the stairs and stopped by the training ring.

"Signore!" Philippe gasped, "News from Firenze!" he panted before producing a piece of parchment from his satchel. As Auditore's messenger between Monterigioni, Firenze, and San Gimigiano he was the one his contacts across Toscana came to with reports of trouble. It was no easy task being the bearer of bad news, but it was a job he took with the upmost seriousness, he was too short and lean to be a fighter so why not be a runner?

Mario handed the leggings to Agostino as he reached out and took the note from the boy, "Ezio, take a break while I read this," he said. Slowly he unfolded the parchment, eyes scanning the contents which read, _'There has been another slain in the church. This time it was an innocent from what we gathered. She is here. Send him, send Ezio.'_ His head shook unconsciously as he turned to look at his nephew heavy heartedly. He had hoped that Ezio taking Maffei from her would have brought some form of solace to Nastassia, but it seemed as if it instead had the opposite effect. She had broken one of the many sacred vows the Assassin Order held in high regards: stay your blade from the flesh of the innocent. He had been able to turn a blind eye to the assassinations she had carried out of certain clergy members that she had found and presented as being liars in the face of faith, but now he could not turn away from her wrong doing. Punishment had to be rendered, but he wished somehow he did not have to send away the only male young enough to continue the Auditore name.

Ezio took note of the distress written on Mario's face, "What is it?" he asked as he was handed the note. As his golden brown gaze swept over the words he found himself puzzled. "Uncle, why are they asking specifically for me?" Mario was not being as forthcoming to him as he had been lead to believe and it seemed as if there were still too many dark secrets being held from him.

"The girl you are to fight, Ezio, Nastassia. She has left a trail of blood that I have followed for many years now, knowing full well that I would keep a wary eye on it. Now, she has done the unthinkable in our order by killing an innocent man." His heart broke even as the words left his lips. Anna had been determined and highly studious, opting to stay up and read the tenants over and over again until she could regurgitate them on command. She had been the closest thing Mario had or ever would have to a daughter; war had done her job to keep him from ever taking a wife and settling down to have a family unlike his brother. "Ezio, I do not know what it is or _who_ it is you are riding out to fight. I fear all the training in the world would do nothing to prepare you for the woman you are about to face, and for that I am sorry my boy."

Ezio's blood began to boil, seething beneath the surface as the dragon stirred within him. It had been enough that she had threatened him while he hovered above the ground between the towers; he had thought then that it was nothing more than a scare tactic, something to get him to go away. It had been innocent enough, he had been sure of at the time. Then there was the challenge, but he knew that was coming because the woman in the tavern had forewarned him of it much to his surprise. He had killed his fair share of corrupt men, but to hear that she had slain an innocent and out of a fit no doubt. That was incomprehensible, completely uncalled for, unjustified, and downright asinine of her to do.

"I have had enough of this woman, girl or not, I am not standing idly by and letting her off as easy I would have if circumstances were different," Ezio said darkly. If she were standing here right now, he would have his hands wrapped around her neck and would be watching the life leave her eyes. "She has declared war against my city, my home, my existence and this order," he cried.

"Ezio, you cannot do to her the same as you have done to the Templars you have killed," Mario said warily. "Yes, she has killed an innocent, but you have to bring her back here so I can deal with her appropriately and according to the laws of our order." He would have to alert Machiavelli; things like this were out of his comfort zone. Just as to what was to be done with Nastassia and her punishment, he had an inclination but still the decision would have to be agreed upon by both himself and the man who he dreaded having to summon to Toscana.

"So she can do what, Mario? Sit here and plot our demise while we sleep? No!" Ezio snapped. _Is he out of his damned mind, _he thought. "Is it not enough that I have lost my father, my brothers, everything I ever knew and loved to some sinister plot that just seems to grow deeper and deeper? I never asked to choose this life!"

Mario stepped forward, a hesitant hand outstretched towards his nephew, "Most of us never asked to be a part of the order, we are born into it. It is a livelihood inherited for our family and we stand as pillars of light in a world lost in darkness, a world caught in a tumultuous sea of lies and deceit spread by those who would see us dead," he said. His hand made contact with Ezio's shoulder, his eyes holding the boy's gaze, "Some of us have gone astray at some point or another, Ezio, for whatever reason. Nastassia is no different; she was betrayed by those who had sworn to protect her from harm. Just because she has fallen to the ground does not give us permission to show her no mercy and fail to grant her the support she needs." Even as he spoke, he knew her path to redemption would be a long one but one she would only grow from.

Somehow the elder Auditore's words struck a chord, a familiar resonance in his wording and his eyes in Ezio's mind. It was as if his father spoke to him from the grave through his brother_._ "Alright, I'll ride out in the hour to make Firenze by nightfall. But I warn you, if she gives me one hint of trouble, if she slips up and does one stupid thing I will not be afraid to 'end her miserable existence' in the same fashion she had been so quick to threaten me with."

His uncle's words had done little to still the unsettled feeling he felt growing inside of his stomach. What had started as a somewhat decent morning had now turned into yet another struggle. _When will it all end?_

* * *

Santa Maria del Fiore sat in pained silence. The air was stale; scents of vinegar and incense intermingled with the stench of dust that burned in the flames of the candles which so heavily adorned the three tier wrought iron chandeliers that hung from the ceiling. The ornately designed frescos stood saturated in what light the darkness did not swallow whole. Thousands of colors and their various shades danced and took on different configurations as the tiny flames flickered, moved by the drafts high above the marble floor. The columns stood sentient, the statues of the saints looked on over the scene that was being set by the moonlight that filtered through broken panes of glass, shattered by the lightning which had struck the church. The tiles, once stained by the blood of the slain priest had been removed from near the door. Yet the eyes of the angels on high did not falter, ever vigilant in their guarded watch of the woman who knelt alone near the altar.

They knew what she had done, and what it was she was here to pay the penalty for. The day of reckoning...had arrived.

A creak echoed through the air as a pillar on the right side of the church beside the last row of pews cracked open. It was a secret passageway that had lead into the structure from outside, one that had been created by their forefathers as they snuck in to inter once more the remains that hovered above them now in the tallest dome. Ezio slowly edged his way through the entrance, his eyes searching the church before his gaze found who it was he had traversed across the Tuscan countryside for.

Anna stood and crossed herself, "Is it not a strange thing, that two people who met atop a church and had a friendly conversation once should decide who lives and who dies in one?" she smirked. Sleep had eluded her, exhaustion plagued her body. All she could think and had thought about was what lay in store for her when Mario sent his lapdog to fetch her.

Ezio could not help the urges that swelled within him. All he had to do was run and jump and this could have been all over. Anger filled him, consumed him, "You have spilled the blood of an innocent. You broke one of our sacred vows," he snapped.

"Il Mentore has taught them to you, I see. The tenants that were set forth by a tired bunch of old men who had nothing better to do than to gamble with their lives and the lives of others, to intervene in affairs they had no business to meddle in," Anna laughed. "Stay your blade from the flesh of the innocent, hide in plain sight," she said as she spun on her heel, her eyes quickly finding the white hooded man who had come to see himself off. "Oh did they break the third tenant with your father; never compromise the brotherhood," she said off-handedly.

Ezio could not believe his ears, "You, madam, are an arrogant, insolent fool who knows _nothing_ of the sacrifices my father made to protect my..."

Anna laughed, "Family? Ha! He _failed_ in that just as he failed me and _mine_. I have to wonder, did the apple fall far?" She reached her hand up and unclasped her cloak, the tattered and blood stained fabric fell to the floor. "Do not forget, boy, that you too started this life by slaughtering the innocent."

Ezio snarled, his left hand shot out towards her from the end of the aisle, finger pointed at her, "I have killed only those guilty of treason against my family!"

Anna's eyes held his as a sadistic smile graced her crimson tinged lips. Rage, resentment, fear, all three traits glowed in his amber gaze like an echo of the rampant seas that churned inside of her heart. "You, who are quick to damn but do not see the reflection that stares so unwillingly at you when you dress in the morning," she said as she removed her gloves. "But enough with the pleasantries, boy. Let us deal with my sentencing." She dropped her bow and quiver, her dagger clattered across the stone floor before she stepped slowly towards Ezio.

"It is written, with the blood of the fallen," Anna said. The bracers that had covered her right and left forearms fell to the floor as her hands skillfully worked the lacings free, "If any one of the sacred tenants is shattered and our brotherhood betrayed, then the blood of the Assassin who has carried out such horrid acts is to be put to death. Their blood must be spilt to reconcile the accounts we hold, so says the law."

Mario had demanded she be brought to him alive, faint hope that maybe she could be reformed in his eyes before Ezio set out to meet her. The light illuminated her eyes, every scar bared to him. Her body looked like it had done well in its job as a record book of the travesties that she had survived. "Then let this be a fair fight. Since you are unarmed and unarmored, then I too will remove my equipment," he said as he lowered his hood. "Since it is only you and I, I think I have the right to declare my own authority of this matter. If you defeat me, then I will spare you for tonight. But I promise you, if you remain in Italia I will hunt you and I will kill you. If you do not defeat me, and I kill you, I can assure you that you will die with honor."

Here he stood, a man that had stolen the only closure she would or could have ever attained, and he offered her the chance to fight for her life as if he was doing her a courtesy. Anna's father had been brutally honest with her from the beginning: if she broke any of the sacred vows she took as an Assassin, she would be killed and her name forever marked as a traitorous one. In the moment she remembered, she saw with her mind's eye the scene as he spoke the words. He had always guarded his emotions except when he stood behind closed doors with her mother, but it was then she saw his eyes well up as a tear traced its way down his sun kissed skin as he whispered, 'even if you have to die by my hand.'

Anna remembered the tears that left her father's eyes the day he screamed for her mother and her to follow Mario and Giovanni from the prison as he held off the guard. "Why, do you lack the _balle_ to do what your uncle could not?" she snapped.

"No, I just want to see if you are truly half as good as you make yourself out to be, woman," he said with a smirk. Ezio saw it, the first stone she had stumbled over as her ice blue gaze grew distant for the moment as if she were caught in the whispers of a memory. He removed his hidden blade, his bracers, his knives, sword, dagger, and armor; all of which he placed within the safety of the pew that sat to his right. Now he stood, unprotected and unarmed in front of a woman who could very well kill him without hesitation.

"Shall we dance then?" he asked as he dropped into a defensive pose, his left fist up to guard his head as his right rose and came to position just an inch or two passed his left, his weight dropped into his feet as he grounded himself, feet shoulder width apart with the right slightly behind his left.

Anna took a running start, dropped to her left hip, right leg extended as she slid across the smooth, newly polished floor of the basilica. As she slid, she used the momentum she gained to twist and spin on the floor, her right leg angled just high enough to attempt to sweep Ezio's feet out from under him via his right ankle.

Ezio spun to the left, missing her foot entirely as he watched her use the spin to come to her knees before jumping to her feet. As she came up he took the opportunity to grab for her shoulders, her back exposed to him as he wrapped his arms around her. Her hair shimmered in the candle light as the scents of the Earthen tones he had smelled on the rooftop mixed with the rich smell of copper and iron, an apparent side effect of blood transferred from her cloak to her tresses. "I know what they did to you Nastassia," he said as she struggled against him.

"You know nothing of me, Auditore!" she snarled as she fought his grasp. As a woman, she had the distinct advantage of a lower core group of muscles that were far more flexible than his, leaving her with one of two options. She side stepped flawlessly to the right before bringing her elbow hard into his abdomen, hard enough to knock his grasp around her shoulders loose. As his grasp falter, she dropped into her hips, feet planted firmly into the ground as she reached her hands up to grasp his left arm and pull, twisting as she did. The momentum of the action sent Ezio up and over her form, landing him to his back on the marble floor beneath them, the tile cracking. With his arm still in hand as she moved to strategically break it at the elbow dropping both legs across his chest in the process as she leaned back when she hit the ground.

Ezio was not about to be out bested by her so quickly. He rolled into Anna, grabbed his arm with his free hand and in the process her legs folded over her head as she clung to his arm for dear life, curling her spine into a near perfect c-shape. He used the momentum in the roll to come to a near standing position, rearing back to drop her on the curve of her neck. She never game him the chance to accomplish his feat.

Anna dislodged her death grip on his arm, kicking her feet over her head the remaining few inches in order to roll out of his would be attempt at putting her out of the fight. As she rolled and came to her feet, she was taken aback by his knowledge of her fighting technique; she remembered in training, her father throwing her down to the heavily carpeted floor more than once. Never in her life had she encountered anyone that knew that move other than her. _Perhaps he is more skilled than I thought._

Ezio came to his feet as Anna went on the defense. She was agile, she was quick, but for all of his uncle's talk she was nowhere near what he expected her to be. Yet even as she was poised to either defend herself or strike out as a cornered cat, her eyes became distant in that same split second once more. Could it be that she was so ensnared by the life of solitude she had lead for so long, that the idea of anyone else out there beyond her reach that could possibly know her darkest secrets scared her beyond comprehension?

"Are you going to stand there, or are you going to make this interesting?" she hissed as she caught her breath once more. The way the words left her shook her into the realization that somehow, in some way, this boy she fought tonight had gotten beneath her hardened exterior, her anger and lust for blood had paved the way for the crack that was beginning to form. She underestimated him, and now she would have to pay the price for it. Anna then thought of Mario, how much the man knew she was unsure of, but he was more than likely the reason why Ezio was somewhat prepared for her. Fighting could not have been the only the thing the old man had shared with him. She knew full well he would more than likely regurgitate truths she had buried so far within her, she had come to believe the façade of lies she had built was truth and that truths she had buried was a lie. _"Ti ha colpito così duramente i bastardi lo sento!"_ she said.

How would she react to hearing them once more as her heart and mind raced within her?

"_Grande discorso da uno che si muove più lentamente di mia nonna morta,"_ Ezio smirked. The taunt was enough to get her to lunge.

Anna advanced, her left foot leaving the ground in a circular motion, a round house kick to his head. He blocked the first, both hands grabbing her left ankle, prompting a second kick as she spun on her hip, right foot coming off the ground and across. The motion caught him off guard as she found herself unceremoniously dropped to the floor, her hands shooting out to catch her upper body as he back pedaled. She pivoted on her wrists, her left leg coming down to the ground as she twisted her right leg across her body as her upper body twisted in time as she righted herself and kicked out with her right foot, hitting her mark squarely in his chest.

Ezio was stunned by the flurry of kicks, one after another in rapid succession. He was beginning to rethink his previous assumptions of the skill set she so uniquely held. "Torture, rape, it's one hell of a way to spend imprisonment," he said finally as she dropped into another defensive posture, her right leg outstretched beside her, her left knee bent at a forty-five degree angle.

Anna felt a chill run up her spine as she growled, "Your kind get creative when it comes to matters of the body." Her temper flared as her eyes flashed the coldest blue he had ever seen as she once more spun for another sweeping motion. Only this time when she spun and stood, she found herself catching a nasty right hook to her temple, dazing her. It was a lucky shot, which left her wondering how could she have missed it?

Ezio took advantage of the moment to dig further, "Day in, day out. Those serpents hissing and writhing as they stole your innocence, I can only imagine the lies that left their mouths," he said. He followed his right hook by a left which she dodged, dropping to the floor and catching him hard just above his knee with a solid kick as she spun, sending him to the ground.

"Shut up," she hissed. Her head spun, heat filled her temple as her eyes fought to regain their vision. He fell to the ground, but quickly planted his hands above his head and kicked his legs up and out as flipped himself back into another standing position. Once he landed he followed his verbal assault on her as he watched her still fighting to regain her composure.

"Mario told me Maffei did most of it. He was the one to cut you wasn't he? While the other watched and waited," Ezio said as he ducked another kick from the red head. "You were robbed of everything. Your life, your family, everything you knew! Just...like...me!"

In the moments it took for Ezio to say the words, her mind ached as a sick feeling surfaced in her stomach. Flashbacks began to rush over her, threatening to drown her like the waves that swept into the shores of the Aegean when she was home. _Home...father...mother...no...No! I can't let him...do this..._ Anna snarled under her breath, "I am _nothing_ like you!" she said, letting out a war cry as she unleashed a flurry of punches aimed at maiming him the way the inquisitors had maimed her. The wounds on her right forearm split open and began pouring crimson red once more to the floor as her eyes glazed over. Her mind swam and spun, her heart screamed at her as sweat soaked her clothing, her body burned with emotion and physical pain.

Ezio dodged, weaving in and out from her fists, still being assaulted by a flurry he couldn't control. He saw the wounds and though they bled heavily now, he could see a single letter and number that she had carved into her arm: J3. In her anger, she had resorted to taking her aggressions out on herself and from the looks of it, this wasn't the first time as the scar on her left came into view: P23. _She's driving herself insane over this..._he thought as a sense of urgency fell over him and as he fought her he watched her break down, piece by piece.

"Five years is too long," he whispered to himself as he stepped back, catching her right forearm and as his hand enveloped it over the wound, he squeezed hard. In that same second, he wrenched back hard as his opposite hand landed a death blow to her shoulder, cringing as he heard and felt the resounding _crack_ as he dislocated her shoulder.

Anna's eyes went wide, unable to breathe as she fell to her knees as her shoulder shifted hard in its joint. Her skin went pale as all of the memories, all of the pain, all of the emotions crashed over her as Ezio had successfully managed to tap into the muscular memory of old dislocations caused to her right shoulder from her time on the rack. A moment of silence filled the church and for a moment Ezio held his breath.

That was when it happened...

The tears flowed freely from her eyes; her body shook as sheer panic gripped her heart. Five years, five long years of bottling everything up came to her all at once. Anna looked skyward and screamed as loud as she could, **"Why? I gave you everything! Everything! My life! My heart! You left me you stronzo! **_**Fottimi! **_**"** She could take no more as she was taken back to that day when she stood as a fourteen year old girl, defiled and bleeding on the cold stone floor of her cell. "Please...please..." she sobbed as she looked up at Ezio, "I...I don't...I don't want to do this...to be this...I can't..." Her heart was shattered, she had held onto her anger so hard that it became the only glue that held her together, held her captive inside of herself. She had dedicated her life to tearing apart the injustice that plagued mankind, but she had done it in a way that violated everything she had stood for at one time.

Ezio looked into her eyes as he let go of her, dropping to his knees, his arms sweeping her into an embrace as she sobbed, tears soaking the silken shirt he wore beneath his doublet. He hated having to be the one to break her, physically and mentally, but there was a reason it was him and no one else. No one else understood what either had endured and they never would, not even his beloved Christina. "Sh," he whispered, "I have you. I promise, you'll never go through that again," he said as he held her head close to his chest, "no one should ever have to break like this alone."

The reality of what she had done, the severity of her actions weighed heavily on her. So much so, as Anna caught her reflection in the marble pillar that they now resided by, she could hardly recognize the woman who stared back at her. Her eyes were cold, her face paled by exhaustion and pain. Her hair was tangled and looked unkempt. When was the last time she took a day from the hunt for herself? _This was not what you wanted, father. I have...failed you._ The thought hit her as if the church itself had fallen on her; it had been the last thing she had ever wanted to do.

Yet even in her despair, she found solace in Ezio's arms, lavender and musk heavy on his clothes as she buried her face further in his chest. Her eyes closed, her tears began to slow as she focused on his heart beat. She took note of the fact that still, even as her crying began to cease, he held her tightly to him.

Ezio refused to let her go even as he heard her crying begin to quiet, if he anything he only drew her tighter to him. Something in his heart told him that this girl, this creature he held on to, would become an integral part of his life for now. She was an angel, fallen and misguided by the torments of the world around her and the thought that she had suffered for so long tore at him. He now understood why his uncle wanted him to stay his hand; in a world where he swore he was the only one in it some days, it was a comfort to know that perhaps now...he would not have to go it alone.

Anna pushed away from him as something inside of her stirred; a gentle rain of warmth in what had been a frozen wasteland. Their eyes met, and she began to see him in a new light and in that moment, she felt herself drawn to him. The darkness had left her sight, and all she saw was Ezio. Even in her weakest moment, he stayed his hand from her.

His heart caught in his chest as he leaned his head down towards her's. Her eyes, how could it be possible that he found himself in this situation? "Nastassia," he whispered.

"Anna," she said softly. She was unable to move as he leaned closer still, her heart raced in her chest.

Ezio could hold back no more. In one fluid motion, he drew her close to him; his eyes closed as he leaned down and his lips found her's.

The world stopped...time froze...the only two people in their world were them...


	5. Chapter 5 Verdicts

The morning breeze fluttered through the open window of _La Rosa Colta,_ the brothel he had spent much of his time at before his father and brothers were hung unjustly. The women had not changed much, maybe a new face here and there in the wake of early retirement of the few he had grown to know. It was a small comfort given the fact that his life had been turned on its head, something familiar in a sea of strange from when he set foot in Firenze for the first time in two years. Yet the warm embrace of the familiar did nothing to chase the chill of the emotions that ran rampant in his heart and his mind.

Those eyes, the desperate unspoken cries for redemption and atonement had reached out to him through the chilling blue pools that had looked up so longingly to him. Her body had trembled hard in his arms, her skin pale as if she were three breaths away from death. Her voice had pleaded with him to reach out to her, to pull her from the darkness that perhaps threatened to drown out whatever light she struggled to hang on to. The woman who clung to him, who sobbed and fell to pieces in front of him, was a far cry from the strong willed fem fatale he had met on the roofs of San Gimigiano. Mario had painted her in a light that spoke of knightly escapades of vengeance well warranted, justice demanded in blood for the sins committed against her. But that was not the same woman he had faced in the sanctified halls of Santa Maria del Fiore.

No, the woman he had faced had somehow been lost in a war he still fought within himself. It was a battle he felt some days would overthrow what little reason he had left and if he let it, he now saw the end result. While he knew the circumstances that surrounded her reasoning were unrelated to the ones that had brought him to where he was, slowly he began to see her in a realization that haunted him. Anna was a darker image of him, one Ezio had seen the day he brutally murdered Vieri di Pazzi.

The need to feel human after the tidal wave of emotion that appeared to rock her to her core, bringing her to her knees the moment her shoulder was wrenched from its socket had been stronger than ever. Maybe that was what had drawn him to her, the driving force behind his reasoning to pull her into such an impassioned embrace. Was it out of fear for her perhaps that made him forget his place? Or was it pity? So many questions weighed on his mind at this moment in time that it was dizzying. Had he done any good at all by showing compassion the only way he knew how to a member of the opposite gender? Or had he done nothing more than to push her a thousand meters away, fanning the flames of disgust he had seen the moment he had laid eyes on her before he had killed Maffei.

Ezio stood from the bench he had sat on, leather armor cinched down, stretching as he did. His back still ached, even though Serena had done a fine enough job of ensuring he was...well taken care of. _Perhaps Christina will have better luck,_ he thought as his mind found relief in the sanctuary that was the excitement he felt knowing he would be seeing her in a few short minutes. First, however, he needed to ensure his charge was awake and readying herself for the trek back to Monterigioni where she would have to endure whatever punishment Mario saw fit to dispense on her.

Ezio took the stairs by twos until he made it down the short hall way that led to Nastassia's room, knuckles rapping on the heavy oak door that separated them. "Hey, are you awake?" he asked softly.

Anna had been in the middle of deep contemplation, a charade that played over and over in her mind's eye as she had awoken from the nightmare well before the sun had even thought of rising. Her shoulder burned, the persistent sensation managed to take no relief from the creams and salves the doctore had given her. Her heart raced within the confines of her chest as she tried to internally process the events that had transpired over the course of the evening. Five years of pent up anger had come to a head and had been ripped out of her by a man she had met barely two weeks ago. Most, not all, of her darkest secrets had been regurgitated in an attempt to break her down to the point where he could get one lucky blow in to end what could have been a day long fight. She had been forced to confront truths she had done a near perfect job in keeping covered by a series of lies she told herself every morning, hiding them behind passages of scripture she had memorized as a youth.

Then there was the kiss...that kiss he had felt so inclined to bestow on her in her moment of weakness. That damned embrace had done nothing more than to bind her down with more chains of _merda_ she would have to sort, catalogue, and sift through. Who in their right mind did that and to a complete stranger?

With a sigh, she replied, "Would I be speaking to you if I weren't?" Cautiously, Ezio cracked the door open and saw a sight that he did not expect.

There she stood in front of a floor length mirror dressed in black pants, a white blouse left loose about her torso as the neckline hung low about her shoulder. Her hands slowly closed the crimson corset she held in her possession tightly about her waistline. The sun radiated brilliantly through her deep crimson curls, glints of gold surrounding her with a near angelic halo before her face grimaced slightly as she shifted her right shoulder.

Anna felt it, the familiar awareness that someone had their eyes glued to her. Her azure gaze shot to the boy who stood in the door way, hesitantly watching her from a distance and in that moment it felt as if an over burned candle had been lit once more. "Well don't stand there like an asino, what was it that was so damned important you couldn't stand to wait five ever loving minutes for me to come out of my room?" she snapped.

Every single emotion from the night previous came back to her as her eyes found Ezio. She reached out and found the chair she had sat in last night, sweat beading on her forehead as she fought the searing pain that began to throb once more in her shoulder. It was as if her mind struggled so heavily to process the emotional turmoil which bubbled and belched inside of her like a hot spring, that it in turn created a physical pain to embody what she felt within. Suddenly she wanted to leave, to be done with this business of verdicts issued by a man who could never understand the struggles of the last five years of her life.

Ezio was taken aback by the tone. Her voice, the same one that had pleaded with him from the floor now snarled in sharp tones, as if last night had done nothing more than to stoke the embers of unbridled aggression he thought had been washed away by her tears. "Look, I'm going to hit the streets this morning, there's someone I need to see before we leave. I'll be back in an hour. Try to behave while I'm gone." he said simply.

"Seriously?" she sighed as she slumped into the chair. "Did you just address a fellow Assassin who clearly has more years under her belt than you do the same way you would a child? Listen you _insolente stronzetto, _you clearly don't comprehend the severity of the matter at hand." she snarled. Yes she was on Mario's _merda lista_, but that was no excuse for Ezio to speak to her in a matter that was demeaning of who she was.

Ezio could not believe what he heard, "No, you listen. You clearly don't understand the fact that the roles have reversed and that the business I have to attend to is a higher priority than having to deal with a woman who claims to be something she's clearly forgotten to be." Her tone, her words, everything lacked the unsaid character traits his uncle had done well to hammer into him during every practice, every training session. "And to think I almost felt sorry for you this morning, how stupid of me," he snapped.

Anna fell silent, her fists clenching as the words left his mouth. Her anger flourished once more as she stared down at the floor, "Fine," she hissed, "go on, take your pity and leave. Heaven forbid you fail to do your job any more than what you have already." His words cut her deeper than any sword or device of torment had or ever could as she looked from the floor to the mirror she sat in front of before he stormed down the hall and stairs to the front door of the brothel. The building shook from the force of which he had slammed the door behind him, but she could care less.

It was in his absence that the crushing weight of the sadness she had experienced last night resurfaced as hot tears made their way down her cheeks. Her eyes quickly diverted from the mirror, unable to stand the sight of herself any longer. All she wanted right at this very moment was to be alone in her thoughts. A chance to process what had happened to her in the church in solitude without having a flock of people surrounding her and thus she made an executive decision to climb out of the window and to take to the rooftops. She looked skyward and gauged the approximate position of the sun, just once around the district would do her good. Perhaps then a cooler head would prevail and she would be able to endure the ride to the villa without killing the man who, for the time being, was her keeper and she his charge.

* * *

Christina, a woman of integrity, of better moral standing than most of her station and not to mention one of the most beautiful creatures of her gender that God had ever put together. She was delicate in build, a far cry from the well toned physique of Anna. Her demeanor was also far more pleasant than that of the woman he had just left behind, a welcomed changed as he knew she was less likely to hang him from the highest place in the city to make a point. Her eyes, large and brown, the same shade as the chocolate he had indulged her with during the celebration of St. Valentine's Day. Her lips, oh God those lips, the way his name fell from them while they made love had been enough to drive him well past the edge of euphoria.

The trip to the two-story Vespucci home had been a short jog from Paola's, two lefts, a right, and there stood the small manor at the end of an alley. As he anticipated, the window to her second story bedroom sat open to the cool morning air, her voice carried on the morning breeze like the brightest song the sparrows could offer him. _Christina,_ Ezio thought, a smile on his lips as he scaled the vine covered lattice work on the wall. If had taught him well the benefits of climbing a wall in silence, guards never seemed to hear him coming until he had successfully pinned them to the ground with whatever weapon he managed to get a hold of.

Christina never heard him as he slipped through her window as he had a hundred times before as she dressed in front of her floor length mirror. Between the education her father had insisted on she attain and wedding planning she was surprised if she could remember to breathe some days. Her hand ran over the golden pendant Ezio had given her the day he fled Firenze with his mother and sister, her eyes growing distant. The day her father had whispered the rumors she had feared was the day she felt as though she had died along with him and things had never been the same. Yes, her father approved of Manfredo, but it did little to quiet the ache she had felt every day since he had left her. Manfredo would never be another Ezio.

"Christina," Ezio whispered as his heart took up residence in his throat, their eyes meeting in a gaze of unbelief through the mirror as Christina glanced up at the sound of his voice.

Her skin paled, the ceramic comb she held in her hand dropping to the floor and shattering. "Ezio?" she cried as she spun, the skirt of her crimson and gold gown flaring around her, "Ezio, is that really you?" How many nights had she sworn she heard him say her name on the night wind? How many mornings had she awoken and prayed that he would be there, dressed in his best, just outside her window?

Ezio grinned, "Si, I am here mia bella," he said as he reached out and swept her into his arms. For a moment, as he looked deeply into those chocolate hued eyes, he was taken back to the church, back to the moment that he had dropped to his knees and had enveloped Anna in nearly the same embrace.

The thought caught him off guard even as Christina pushed away from him, and he fought to clear his mind of the other woman. "Christina," he said, reaching out for her only to find her quickly falling to bits in front of him. What was it with the women he found himself smitten with and their inability to keep things together?

"No, Ezio, you shouldn't be here!" she cried, "I'm engaged...to be married in three months." _Why, why did you pick now to come back? Why couldn't you have just moved on like I had hoped?_ She thought.

Ezio shook his head, "Huh? What do you mean engaged? When did that happen?" It was starting to get to be too much to process in such a short period of time. First, it was Anna and whatever emotional outburst he had endured with her last night, now Christina and her declaration of being engaged to another. How much more of this _merda _and drama would he have to endure?

"I thought you were dead Ezio!" Christina whispered, "You never wrote me, never bothered to come back to let me know you were alive. My father came to me last year and...he made me choose!" Manfredo gave her the opportunity to please her father, to know that he was truly happy with someone she had chosen. Yes, he chose the man for her, but he promised her a good life with little trouble.

Well, except for one little flaw.

"It's not like I didn't want to come back to see you! How could I when half the city guard had been after me?" Ezio snapped. This morning was not going as he had hoped, as he had dreamed it would happen. He had seen her returning his embrace and then they would make love, he would confess that she was still the only woman he ever truly loved and she would agree to come live with him at the villa.

Christina opened her mouth to say something when a familiar voice screamed from the street below, "Christina!" her friend sobbed, "Christina!"

Christina panicked and shoved Ezio back out of sight and away from the open window, "What is it?" _Merda, if Manfredo found out._

"Christina," the woman sobbed, "it is Manfredo! He's in trouble!"

Ezio felt his hands clench into fists, "Who is Manfredo?" he demanded.

"He's my fiancé," Christina cried. "Ezio, you have to help him. He has a little gambling problem, and I remember him saying something about owing someone money. Please, you can't let them kill him!"

Ezio rolled his eyes, "Fine, stay here," he sighed before he climbed to the rooftops. His heart broke inside of his chest, sinking further into his stomach. How could she? After everything he had gone through with her, how could she betray him like this?

The commotion outside of the Vespucci Estate was enough to grab the attention of another, the only other female who had felt obliged to take a morning stroll over the tiled rooftops this morning. _Well, this should make for an interesting conversation piece,_ Anna thought as she smirked beneath the shadow of her hood. It was not the same fabric as the red velvet cloak she had once worn, but it would do until she could get to a tailor's to replace the one she had lost. _Beggars can't be choosers, and I doubt the good vicar won't mind._

Anna followed; careful to not get too close as she tailed Ezio and the other woman who lead him to a bridge that was half-way to completion. While he leapt down, she was content to climb down a ladder that lead to the street from the home she stood atop of. There, the shadows were thick and good for concealing her as she watched the events unfold in front of her.

Ezio killed the thugs that had been beating on Manfredo before the he grabbed the _stronzo_ that would soon be his beloved's husband by the collar of his shirt, the man grasping for his forearms as he dangled him off the edge of the unfinished bridge. _You figlio de puttana, _"Do you love her?" he demanded. He could not believe that Christina would be marrying this _porco _instead of him.

Manfredo looked wide eyed at the man who had just saved him and in the same instant now dangled him over the water below, "What?" he cried.

"Christina! The woman who you are about to marry! Do you love her?" Ezio snarled.

"Yes, I do. With every fiber of my being I do!" Manfredo declared.

Ezio yanked him back over the edge in disgust, "Good. Treat her right, or else I will kill you myself." His anger boiled inside of him as he turned from the whimpering man, his eyes finding that Christina had distinctly ignored what he had asked of her and had bore witness to the whole thing. A fact that he was glad of as he walked towards her, he had to know, had to find out for himself one last time before he released her to her fiancé. He reached out, grabbed her hand and pulled her hard to a nearby wall before pushing her against it out of Manfredo's line of sight. Ezio's mouth found her's in a heated embrace that he remembered sharing with her so many nights, his heart pounding in his chest as he found her returning his kiss. In the same breath, something in it had changed and it was not the same as it once had been.

Christina could not fight the tears fast enough that forced their way from her eyes down her cheeks as Ezio, the only man she had ever truly loved with everything she had, kissed her deeply. Her heart pleaded with her, screaming at her to say to hell with the loser near the water's edge and leave with Ezio this time. But she had just watched him kill three otherwise innocent men out of cold blood and that fact...scared her.

"He'll make a good husband, I made sure of that," Ezio whispered, heartbroken as he let go of her. He could bare it no longer and so it was then he turned away from her, then that he walked away from the only woman he had sworn to love from the first day he had met her until his last.

Anna had seen the whole exchange curiously up until the point of which Ezio had taken the woman who had rushed to the scene behind them and pressed her against the wall. The anger, the resentment, melted as she watched him so desperately kiss the woman before tearing away from her with a few whispered words. She should have been livid about how cavalier the man was, so quick to kiss one then kiss another. Was it not against everything her father had believed in when he had taken his mother for his wife, the belief that when a man embraced a woman it was that woman alone who would be privy to such displays of impassioned emotion and no one else?

He never saw her as Anna slipped from the shadows and into step beside him, careful to keep her face hidden by the vicar's cloak she had acquired earlier. "My son," she said softly, "I was told once, that the things we do for those we love 'oft times don't make sense, but we know in the end it is for the betterment of the one we love that we do them." She could ill imagine what it was he was going through, she had never been through it herself but pain was pain no matter how one perceived it.

Ezio stopped in his tracks as another voice purred beside him, an apologetic and comforting tone resonating in her voice as she echoed strangely familiar words. He looked down to meet a shimmering azure gaze that looked up at him from the shadows of...a vicar's cloak? "Anna?" Had she followed him from the brothel to Christina's? _Merda, how did I not see her?_ "I thought I told you to sit tight and that I would be done..." He searched his memory, where had he heard that same phrase before?

"In an hour?" she finished for him. Anna laughed, "I would be old and grey if I had waited any longer for you to finish your 'duties' you told me of this morning." Her eyes looked up to him as a single black gloved hand rose to cover the lower half of her face with the excess fabric of the cloak. _Life is too short, mi princessa, to hold onto unjustified emotions when there is always someone out there who is suffering more than you are. _Her father spoke clearly in her mind, the same words he had always offered when she was angry or upset and they had done well to remind her of just how well she had it.

Until the day that everything had changed.

Ezio fell silent as he looked down at her; he failed to see the torrent of emotions he had seen in her eyes earlier as the wit he had been victim of returned once more. He would have chided her, but for once she was a welcome distraction. "You have a point, come on," he said with a soft smile. "I know where a couple of horses are, we'll leave on horseback to the Villa. The guard will be here shortly and I think it would be best if we were as far away from here as possible."

Anna laughed, "The great Assassin admitting that I have a point," she said in a hushed tone, "First I need to get my gear from _La Rosa_ before I can say goodbye to Firenze," she said.

* * *

Ezio and Anna had said nothing to one another once they had left Paola's after grabbing her gear from her room. She could say nothing; her mind had done a well enough job at keeping her occupied. She had broken one of the three sacred tenants and while Ezio had not killed her, having chosen to spare her life, nothing said that Mario would be so willing and ready to do the same. Dread filled her as they closed the distance from Florence to Monterigioni, the walls of the village in the center of the Tuscan countryside looking on in a darkened glare. Memories of the day she had tore out of the town played through her mind, Mario dropping to his knees in the dirt outside of the village, tears in his eyes as she took the horse he had given her. 'Please, don't leave,' his voice had cracked as he pleaded with her. Her world had been rocked to its core with the words that said her mother had been killed by the same men both Mario and Giovanni had sworn to protect them from.

She felt it, the same waterfall of loathing mixed with pent-up distrust and unwarranted hatred against herself and everyone who had ever been involved in her life surfaced once more inside of her. Anna wanted to scream, to run, jump on the first ship she could and get the hell out of Italia. Yet it was that sense of honor, of dignity that her father had instilled in her from the time she started her training that kept her in place.

"Anna?" Ezio said as he dismounted in front of the gate, "Anna, wake up. We're here," he said, taking note of the distant look that had glazed over in her eyes.

Anna's gaze turned cold as she dismounted, waving off Ezio's hand as her feet hit the ground, "Let's get this over with," she sighed.

"Do you need me to..." Ezio found himself cut off by her hand.

"No, I know where I'm going," she said shortly. "Ezio, grazie," she whispered as she crossed her chest, fist over her heart as she bowed out of respect to him.

Ezio lofted a brow; the look that was written on her face almost seemed as if she were going to her own funeral. How was it she knew the village? He nodded and watched her turn, dropping the hood of her cloak as she walked through the gate, following just a few meters behind her.

Anna walked past the shops, the merchants closing up for the evening, the streets near empty as she mounted the stairs in front of the villa. The sight she found when she reached the courtyard stopped her in her tracks, her body jerking as if she had just been punched hard in the gut.

There stood Mario, hands clasped behind his back in mirror image of the black and crimson robed man who stood beside him. _Merda, he's here? Mario drug Machiavelli into this?_ she thought as she carefully walked towards the men.

"Il Mentore, Messer Machiavelli," Anna said as she bowed. As she stood Machiavelli stepped forward and with one single, fluid movement lifted a hand and caught her hard across the left side of her face with the full palm of his black gloved hand.

Mario stepped forward to catch her as she wheeled from the slap but Machiavelli held up a hand, steel blue eyes narrowing. "No," the younger man snapped, "Let her feel the sting. Maybe it will remind her of why she was one of us in the first place."

Ezio could not believe what he had just seen. Who was this black clad stranger and what place was it for him to raise his hand to her like that? The girl back pedaled but did not grimace as she looked at the man who had just slapped her hard, a quiet reserve about her as he watched her stand once more. "Is that really necessary?" he said.

Machiavelli snarled, "You should be thankful you are not on my list either, boy. It was your job to do what Mario asked and yet you brought her here intact and a day later than you were expected." The order was in a sad state of affairs as it was and Mario had been far too gentle with his nephew's training. He could not argue with Auditore; he was the leader of their order in Italia but he wished that the man had adhered better to the standards and laws that had governed them since the days of Altair Ibn-laAhad.

His eyes fell on the woman in front of him, "Follow me," he said before he shifted his gaze to Mario. "Bring the boy. I think that he would do well with a stern reminder of the consequences that await him in light of direct disobedience."

Mario led the small group through the villa and into his study. It was there that he walked to a book case along the same wall as the codex pages, the farthest one from the door. With a tug on one of the books, the shelves creaked and groaned before shifting to the left to reveal a hidden passageway that wound its way down beneath the villa. The four traversed the stairs before entering the sanctuary, ivy covered the walls of the great room, white granite inlaid in the floor to match the six statues that encircled the room. A seventh statue, the visage of the order's founder, hid behind a heavy black iron grate.

Anna's heart sunk further into her stomach as she followed Mario and Machiavelli to the center of the room. Below her feet was a drainage cistern of some sorts, the grate creaked beneath her as the light from the moon flooded the room, casting odd shadows about the room as the darkness played off of the stone images. All of her younger years she had been constantly told that if she ever violated any of the sacred tenants death would be a new companion for her. It seemed that no matter how hard she had prepared herself for the likelihood, the thought of the unknown scared her beyond reason. There would be no priest, no granting of forgiveness for the wrongs she had done, for the blood she had taken and it seemed as if in this very instant she saw what lay before her as she crossed the famed River Styx. There would be no peace, no serenity, and no sweet sleep for her now.

"To your knees," Machiavelli said coldly. Anna did as instructed, shedding her cloak as she did unable to fight the tears any longer though she did not openly sob.

"Nastassia do you know why you have been brought here, _mio studente_?" Mario asked.

"I have spilled the blood of an innocent, thereby breaking one of the three tenants," Anna said as she swept her hair off to the side of her neck.

"And what are those tenants, Grigorios?" Machiavelli asked.

"An Assassin is to never compromise the brotherhood, an Assassin is to hide in plain sight, and above all else an Assassin is to stay their blade from the flesh of the innocent," she said, recalling the words from memory.

"Do you know what the penalty is for breaking any of the tenants?" Mario asked.

"Death, il Mentore," Anna said "a penalty I am willing to pay. I let my blood lust blind me, so much so that I could not see the truth. I let my lack of humility in all things get the best of me. Five years should have aided in my quest for enlightenment, but it has instead only served to poison my mind. So much so that I have, indeed, forgotten the reason why we kill in order to maintain the balance of peace, the reason why we demand obedience to our laws as we work to open the minds of mankind, and the reason we seek to reveal the dangers of blind faith when we ourselves practice it." Calm befell her as she kneeled there on the floor, her head lowered as she closed her eyes. "I do not ask forgiveness for the lives I have slain in just defense of society; I ask only that I be given the chance to atone for the life I have wrongly taken. May my blood be the atonement, the great equalizer to restore balance once more, "she said

Ezio looked on from his uncle had instructed him to stand, arms folded across his chest as he listened to the hooded man's prodding and Mario's gentle, near father-like questioning. The two men were stark opposites of one another; one seemed content to spill her blood while the other looked as if he wanted to jump in front of the sword that was soon to fall on her. Then there was Anna's voice, quiet and calm even in the face of death. How she could do it, to cry without once giving the hint of the act he failed to grasp at it. The seven men he had killed thus far had pleaded for their life, quick to blame others for their actions. She knelt there, on the floor with her chin just mere centimeters away from her chest, ready for death. He had read stories of Assassins like her, men and women alike who had dedicated their lives to upholding the creed even if it meant living outside the good graces of the order.

Machiavelli drew his sword, the metal sliding against the sheath, singing as it did so. He took the hilt in both hands and closed the gap between them, "Let atonement be given, and justice be served," he said.

Anna and Ezio held their breath as Machiavelli slammed the tip of the sword down hard into the granite. "Do not forget how close you were to death's door, next time I will not be so kind," he snarled.

Mario reached a hand and picked Anna up from the floor, the girl trembling as she stood, confused. "Death...would have done nothing but cost us a damned good archer," he said, relief evident in his voice. There were days he could predict the man who was a little older than his nephew and her, but there were others where Machiavelli did a good job at keeping him guessing. He sighed, "There are more clergy members that need to be dealt with and as Ezio is busy with his own assignments we need another still to do what he cannot. However, this does not mean that you are getting off as easily as a slap to the face," he smirked.

Machiavelli nodded, "Indeed. Anna, as of today you are ordered to confinement to the Villa Auditore until such time that we feel you have been properly rehabilitated and can stand the temptations that lie outside of these walls. Every time you leave this villa you are to be under constant watch. You will be first to rise and last to bed, you will be first to the training ring and you will train far harder than you have trained in the past."

Anna looked between Mario and Machiavelli, shocked still and unable to process what they had just done. Did they just put her under house arrest and demand an even harder training regiment? How much harder could archery be? "What more do I need to learn, Mario? Is it not enough that I have already proven my skills as an archer?" she asked softly.

Mario laughed, "As if I would let you get off the easily, child. No, you will be learning how to master the sword and several long range weapons in tandem with Ezio. When he learns, you will learn."

Ezio shivered at the thought of having to get into a training ring with her, but he could not help the smile that tugged at the corner of his lips. It would be nice to exact a little revenge on her in the training ring. He did, after all, have some unfinished business to attend to with her.

* * *

**To my friends, followers, and those who have this story saved in your favorites:**

**I thank you all for your continued support and cannot express how grateful I am that you have endured my growing pains thus far. For the feedback, both praise and constructive criticsm, I am eternally in your favor. Riguardi migliori, vostri. ~Nastassia**


	6. Chapter 6 Saving Anna

Anna's father had once told her a story, about an Assassin and his avalanched fall from grace. He had been on assignment with two brothers in arms, Malik and another. At the time, the Mentor had seen great promise within him and felt he could trust no other to ensure the completion of the mission and retrieval of an ancient relic said to hold a power the world had never seen. This power had been rumored that if the Templars had ever gotten their hands on it, mankind would suffer far more greatly than ever thought possible. This man was known for being young and brash, arrogant in his ability and skill set perhaps by some but the Mentor had chosen to look passed his flaws, unafraid to defend him when needed. After all, was Altair not the best that there ever was, ever been, or perhaps ever would be?

This assumption only served to feed into the young man's ego. He was favored in the eyes of the mentor, he was the best at all things, and the minor trifles of the three main laws that governed him held no sway with him. He had been blinded by pride, by anger, by emotional compromise. During the assignment, he not only lost the priceless artifact but had shattered the three tenants all in unison. Upon his return, he was stabbed by Al Mualim, a ploy to perhaps get him to wake up and realize just how arrogant he had become when he discovered it had all been a facade. He was then stripped of his title and told that in order to regain his position within the ranks he would have to complete tasks in Acre, Jerusalem, and in Damascus.

It was with time that Altair realized the error of his ways, finding the wolf that had hidden so cleverly amongst their fold. The Mentor had betrayed them all, corrupted by the object he had so desperately sought after. The day he had to murder the man he once looked to as a father figure he had seen just what could and will happen to those who allow outside influences determine their fate.

Even now, her father's words of warning and of wisdom spoke to her from beyond the grave, a reminder that for as much as she had told herself that she was fine, she could not have been more wrong. The truth she hid the emotions she buried deep within the crypts of her mind and heart, where had it gotten her? _Absolutely nowhere._

Anna felt trapped, caged. She was cornered on both sides, Mario to her right and Ezio to her left as her presence had been required at the table. Machiavelli had long since left, the carriage headed once more to Roma where he would resume his duties in the higher courts of Papal nobility. Her punishment was simple and consisted of a strict schedule of training that forced her outside of her comfort zone eight hours a day, seven days a week. When she was not training all weaponry was to be outside of her reach, she could not come within a hundred meters of the armory unless the villa was under attack. Her bow and quiver had been ripped from her hands before Mario landed one more blow to her psyche and ego, she was not to leave the villa without a shadow and that shadow was to be no one else except Ezio.

Ezio watched Anna like a hawk watched a smaller bird in the sky, studying her and his environment. Her face may have been emotionless, but when Anetta had served them she had made no movement to even acknowledge anyone's presence. Her shoulders were squared off, jaw set as he watched her eyes shift from one place to the next as if assessing how she would escape and when. They were no longer the brilliant azure he had seen once upon a time. No, they were pale almost ghostly in their shade of blue, white streaks throughout as if her soul had frozen over as a midnight blue ring encompassed them.

He recognized the look, the shadow that added years to her young face. The days after the deaths of his father and brothers had been wrought with a dizzying array of some of the darkest emotions he had ever felt, leaving him raw and bleeding and without direction until Mario saved him. Ezio had hoped that the last few days would have calmed the tempest; maybe she would have attained some form of comfort no matter how small. He watched the shadows intensify until she broke once more, standing quickly from the table. Something told him tonight would not go as smoothly as he had hoped.

Anna's heart raced in her chest as she stood without one single word in apology to either one of the men. The Assassins be damned, she was done with it. Let them come after her, what would they do? Anything was better than the humiliation she had faced. Quietly she walked away, Mario's voice telling his nephew to sit down before mentioning something that the discussion involved only the two of them. Once outside, she could hear him grumbling under his breath.

Mario sighed, "_Dannazione_, Nastassia. You can't just leave things lie can you?"

"Do you know how much I hate the fact that I'm stuck here in this shithole with you and your annoyance of a nephew?" she snapped. Inside she felt as if her world had just come to a screeching halt, as if the darkness that nagged her every day since the cardinal in Firenze had finally choked out what little light she had left. "You robbed me...of _everything!_" she said, her voice cracking.

"I have done nothing more than to protect you from yourself, child." The shadow he saw now, out in the back courtyard was nothing like the teen he had seen fight for her life and the lives of everyone she loved. At the time, she had truly embodied everything the order had stood for. She looked as if she were two steps from running up and over the wall. "I cannot in good conscience let you wander Italia alone anymore. You have tarnished our name, forgotten every single reason why we exist. You have become the _very being_ we fight every day."

He might as well have slapped her as Machiavelli had, maybe then she could deal with everything. Anna averted her eyes, "Do not patronize me, hypocrite. Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately?" she whispered hoarsely, her fists clenching before daring to raise her gaze to him again, "It is you who are no better than the Templars who raped me every day over and over again until I passed out from the pain. You are all the _same,_ you know that?" she snapped. She fought desperately to keep from falling to the ground in tears; it seemed that after the church incident her anger no longer existed to uphold the cold exterior she had. "Physical scars heal. What you do scars the heart and then leaves it shattered on the floor."

There was a pain in her words Mario could not but take some responsibility for. He had insisted on letting her have some form of freedom by allowing to her hang on to her weaponry, the same he had given her in light of her remarkable gifts. Machiavelli, however, felt obliged to think otherwise, defending his decision to strip her of everything on the grounds that what would have kept her from one day turning on them all during her confinement. "Anna," he whispered.

Her eyes narrowed as she felt a guttural growl leap into her throat. "You have no ground on which to stand to call me that. That name was reserved for people who actually have a sense of honor, people I once respected and called friend," she snapped. Inside the darkness swirled around her, her skin burning from the sheer intensity of the flames it fanned. Anna stood on the precipice of her last nerve. "I learned a long time ago to _never_ trust an Auditore, leader of our order or not. You _all_ lie and betray those closest to you without once, just _once_ thinking about the consequences of your actions."

Mario felt his patience being tested, frustration stirring inside of him at her words. "Stop throwing a fit like a bambina and grow up. Just because you are being punished for breaking the rules, you'll stop at nothing to lash out unjustly at those who want to help you." Yes, he and Giovanni had shattered her trust in them but there had been nothing they could have done to keep her mother in San Gimigiano as they had asked. How could they have seen that the woman would have been stupid enough to leave the security of the men they had stationed around her?

"How dare you act like you give a damn about me!" she cried. "And how dare you stand there and judge me! I never asked for this, I never asked for _any of it!_ I..."

Why, why was she so broken? What happened to the woman who had stood so proudly at one time? Who was she, where did she go? "I just want...to understand," she whispered as she felt the knot well in her throat, her eyes cast down, "I just want to wake up. I need to breathe again...that's all I want to do. That's all..."

She fought to hold her ground, to hold onto the anger she had kept close to her. Mario closed the distance between the two, placing his hands lightly on her shoulders. "You will wake up, I know you," he said softly as tears began to trace their way from her eyes down her cheeks. "You are your own worst enemy, child, you always have been. Don't push away the ones who are here trying to help you, embrace them and welcome the chance to begin anew. That's all that this means, Nastassia. You are a phoenix, a beautiful bird of fire that will awaken stronger than ever."

Anna lifted her eyes to Mario's once more, a smile on the elder man's face. She still refused to trust him, but perhaps with time she would. Hell, maybe she would find her strength again. Slowly she nodded, swearing to herself that she would break the chains she had wrapped around her. _Yes, the road will be long and it'll hurt in the process, even the seasons suffer for a time. You are your greatest enemy...let your inner demons whisper in your ear and you will tear yourself apart. Fight your inner demons...and you will find peace that no man can dare try to tear from you._

* * *

The morning found Ezio lost in contemplation as he sat in the high backed chair near his bed, his feet kicked up on the foot rest as he reclined. While his eyes scanned the cream pages of the tome, his mind sifted and sorted through the thoughts that raced still. He had gotten so few reprieves from his thoughts of her; he had suffered emotions from one end of the spectrum to the other over her to include guilt, sorrow, curiosity, a strange sense of need and longing. Christina's news of her engagement should have come as more of a surprise than it had, but something inside of him had seen it coming. He wished it had only been her he had thought of but truth be told, she was as far from his thoughts as possible.

"_Merda_ I've read the same paragraph at least a hundred times," he sighed heavily as he shut the book and set it on the table beside him. He rubbed his forehead before running his hand over his face, yawning as he stood from the chair and walked to the window.

Agostino stood down below in the training ring as he directed the three others who brought the training gear out of the armory. It looked like a typical day for him back at the villa, breakfast followed by training, lunch, more training, a break, dinner and perhaps a nice long soak in the copper claw foot bath that sat near the middle of his room. Of course he knew better, the woman who haunted his thoughts would be there.

Why did the thought of staring into her cold blue eyes again thrill him?

The sky proved to be overcast, heavy grey clouds rolled in from the south as a cool breeze kicked up, the cypress trees moving and shifting in its caress. As he watched the men ready for the day, he caught sight of Anna who wore an odd looking blouse that exposed her abdomen, her pants tighter than ever, her hair tied back into a roll on the back of her head. Slowly, she took a place on the ground below her, parting her legs in a straight line to her sides as she bent down toward the ground. What was she doing?

A smile threatened to creep across his lips as he turned away and finished dressing. He left his doublet and armor at the tailor and blacksmith respectfully to be repaired so today it would only be a clean linen shirt to go with his trousers and boots. He left his room, jogged down the stairs to the main area of the villa before making a stop by the kitchen to grab something quick for breakfast. Anetta was keen on ensuring he had enough down by the ring throughout his sessions to keep him satisfied, to include a shy smile and a wink before she'd walk away from him with a swagger in her hips.

As he walked outside, he found Anna performing a perfect set of...flips? His jaw dropped as she vaulted herself from the ground, tucking herself into a tiny ball in the air before unfurling herself as she had in San Gimigiano and rolling on the ground. Was this how she trained? "Well, good morning to you too sunshine," he smirked as she came out of the tumble.

A good long bath had done much to wash most of the physical pain away, but it had done nothing to quiet her mind last night. Sleep finally found her about five hours ago before Mario had come calling with the clothing she had requested, a worried look on his face as he handed them off to her before walking away. When she popped up from her tumble, she saw what had perhaps bothered the elder man as she met eye to eye with his nephew who looked as cheery as ever whilst crowing a greeting. She rolled her eyes as she slipped her gloves back on, her fingers protruding through the ends as she found Ezio eyeing her. "What?" she snapped, throwing her arms out to her sides.

Ezio laughed, "I'm beginning to think you're not much of a morning person," he said before throwing her a spare apple he had snagged from the cook.

Anna caught the piece of fruit, a wary eye on it as she looked at him, "What did you do to it?" she said cautiously.

He lofted a brow, "_Christo_ Anna, I didn't do anything to it. It's just an apple."

Anna had learned a year ago never to trust a random piece of flying fruit after a 'former' lover had attempted to poison her with one. It had taken her nearly three weeks to fully recoup but not nearly as long for him to find himself seduced by the trance of an insanely high dosage of belladonna. With careful consideration, and the hunger pains in her stomach, she took a bite, chewed, spit it out, waited and when she found nothing she proceeded to finish it.

"Good morning, students," Mario grinned as he walked outside with a cup of caffè in one hand and another cup in the other, handing it off to Anna who took it with a look of relief on her face. It was not long before she had finished the wonderful substance, purring something about it being the 'nectar of the gods.'

"What? I throw you an apple and you think I'm trying to kill you but Mario hands you a cup of liquid and you drink it without question? What gives?" Ezio said, finding her lack of trust slightly upsetting.

Anna's lips cracked the first hint of a smile in a while, "I learned a long time ago _never_ trust a pretty face." She pressed her cup into his chest, "Here, make yourself useful."

"Seriously?" Ezio whined, "Who the hell do you think..."

Mario cut him off, "Enough, boy," he sighed. "Hand it off to Agostino, I'm sure Anetta would be pleased to see him this morning." He shook his head, "Anna, please be nice. For once?"

Anna sighed, "Mi dispiace, il mentore," she said, her right hand crossing her chest before she bowed at the hip.

"Now, onto business," Mario said as he took a position on the outside of the ring. "Ezio, today is a review for you and Anna I know this is new ground for you, so I want you to watch," he said as he slipped over the railing of the fence and into the ring.

Ezio felt obliged to show boat a little as he ran and vaulted over the railing, a boyish smile as he grabbed a sword from the ground. In his hand he spun the sword, his eyes searched to see if she was paying attention.

Anna yawned, unafraid to emphasis the and-this-impresses-me-how look with her posture and facial expression as she rolled her eyes. "As much of a letdown as that kiss of yours, boy...you'll have to better than that," she smirked as she threw him under the proverbial carriage.

Mario lofted a brow, "You..._kissed _her?" He sighed, shaking his head as a look of shock crossed Ezio's face. The man smirked, feigned left and struck right, catching the boy with the full force of the swing to his shoulder before initiating a series of follow throughs that would only serve to knock him off balance.

Ezio hissed, "Hey," he cried. "_Dio dannazione,_ woman! Did you have to tell him?" His uncle was unyielding in his assault against him, forcing him to focus on the task at hand instead of her. Her words cut him to his surprise. At the time, it seemed the only thing he could do, an act he had no control over as he had done it before he had gotten the chance to think of it.

Anna watched as Ezio spun, parried, dodged, and thrusted. He moved like water over the stones of a cascade, fluid in each stroke. She found herself possibly staring too long at him as she leaned against the railing, an unspoken admiration stirring inside of her as she looked on. He may not have been the most graceful when it came to movement on the roofs, but here he was flawless so long as he paid attention.

Mario stopped, "Alright, enough. Anna, it's your turn," he said as he turned to where she stood. He lofted a brow as his eyes caught her's staring intently at Ezio...was that admiration he saw in that gaze? _Maybe there's hope yet_ he thought as she came to.

Anna slid up and over the rail, Agostino pulling Mario aside as she picked up one of the few swords that sat on the ledge. She was caught off guard by the weight of the object; it felt awkward in her hand as she attempted to gauge it. The blade was nowhere near as well balanced as the swords her father had used.

Mario sighed, "Ezio, she's all yours. I have to step inside my study for a bit, mi dispiace." He could not help the smile that played across his lips as he walked away from the two young Assassins. It had been a last minute idea that had crept into his mind to use Ezio to maybe bring Anna back from the deathly shadows she was consumed by. If her words were true, and the boy had kissed her, it would explain why this time she was so willing and ready to cry in front of him. Five years ago, that would have never happened when she first arrived.

Ezio lofted a brow as he watched Anna struggled with the sword, "Here, let me." His uncle was crazier than he thought by leaving him alone with this girl especially with a weapon in her hand.

For a moment, Anna was taken back to the days of her father. The man had been a master swordsman, able to wield two blades at once. She had tried once to pick up his sword which had drawn a smile to his lips before he had shown her some basic tricks. Now, as she fought with the sword, Ezio did as her father had. He stepped in behind her...

Ezio felt her body go stiff as he was once more close to her; one arm came around to her left while the other took her right. "Like this," he purred into her ear, his heart simultaneously racing in his chest as he caught her scent once more. Earth was the only thing he thought of when he smelled her, still, like a forest after a good rain. "Now, move with me," he whispered as he tried to keep his eyes in front of him.

Anna's breath caught in her chest as a feeling foreign to her stirred. She was severely annoyed by him from a distance. Why was it when he had her in his midst that she felt so...calm? No, she felt vulnerable and open, a thought that both brought relief and fear to her. She fought it, oh how she fought it, but it felt like she was the one keeping herself from succeeding. Mario's words echoed in her mind, ringing true as she was found that she was indeed moving with Ezio through a variety of basic moves at a slow pace.

Ezio could hardly believe how fluid she moved with him, he had once tried to teach Christina how to wield a sword much the same way. At the time she had giggled profusely and declared that she would never have any use for it. The same could not have been said of Anna as he felt each muscle respond to his manipulation of her. She was quiet, reserved, as if trying to memorize every point of rotation and articulation.

The sky opened up, rain falling in large, heavy drops to the ground. Ezio moved to release her but found her reluctant to let him. "No," Anna whispered, "Please." She let go of the sword, the object clanging to the ground as she twisted sharply in his arms, the pace of her breath quickening.

"Anna," he whispered, "I..." He found himself silenced by her finger.

"Just...shut up," she said softly, fighting to process the urges she felt inside of her. She was unable to tell if it was the fact that she had been unable to have a descent enough lay in a while...or if maybe she was truly beginning to feel her heart melting the icy casket it had lain in for so long, reconnecting with the humanity she thought she had lost long ago.

There she stood, her eyes never once leaving his own as he slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her close, "What is it you want?" he asked.

Hesitantly, she lifted her arms over his shoulders, her wrists interlocking and coming to a rest behind the back of his neck. "I...I don't know," she whispered. What was this draw she had to him? It was unlike any of the others she had experienced; it was both painful and something else. Frightening maybe?

A flash of lightning streaked across the sky, followed by the roar of thunder as the rain started falling harder. Neither of them moved to let go, Ezio holding his breath for what felt like an eternity. He longed to feel his lips pressed against her's again, his heart aching inside of him. He was beginning to feel numb once more in Christina's wake, a feeling he didn't want to feel again.

Anna felt scared out of her mind and intrigued at the same time, her stomach knotting up as she fought to breathe. Her heart raced faster in her chest, adrenaline pumping through her as she reached a decision, "Kiss me," she whispered.

Ezio quickly obliged, his lips meeting her's again in one of the hungriest kisses he had ever found himself lost in since the first night he had made love to Christina. His heart pulsed heavily in his chest as he fought to catch his breath in between embraces, his hands finding her hips and picking her up off the ground.

Anna's eyes fluttered closed as she returned his embrace, her ankles interlocking behind him as she wrapped her legs around his hips. What she was doing felt as forbidden to her as breaking the rules of her punishment, refusing to ease up on her assault on him as he walked with her over to the railing. She found herself sitting on wet stone, his hands grabbing her firmly and pulling her towards him.

He groaned softly into the kiss, his hips making contact with her's as she clung to him still. Ezio tore free of her, his eyes looking intensely into her's. "Tell me what you want," he panted as his hand cupped her rain soaked face.

Anna smiled slyly, "I prefer a room with a view," she purred, her hormones getting the best of her. _Yeah, that's it, it's just hormones_ she thought, trying to justify away the strange feelings that threatened to make her turn tail and run.

Ezio laughed, "I can appreciate the way you think," he said as he let her go. "I bet I'll get there before you do," he grinned slyly.

"Let's hope not," she purred as she slid off the railing and bolted for the front door of the villa.

"Not that way! What are you, crazy? My uncle will kill us, through the back door," he said as stopped shy of the walkway that wound around to the back.

As he had said, Mario sat in his study, pouring over charts once more as he leaned his forehead heavily in his left hand, his right hand stroking his chin. Ezio and Anna attempted to sneak past him, both unable to keep their hands off of each other long enough to get by without running into something. "Sh," Ezio smirked as Anna took the advantage and pushed him against the wall, kissing his neck again as they stood in the door way. "Woman, stop for three seconds," he grinned as he took her by the hand once he made sure the coast was clear. The two ran up the first and second flights of stairs and never stopped until they were deep within the confines of the hallway that led to the ladder up to his room

Once safe and sound within the four walls of his room, Anna found herself pinned between Ezio and a wall as he kissed her once more before his lips found the exposed flesh of her neck. One hand came up to support him as he leaned with her, the other grabbed hold of the small of her back, pulling her hard against his hips. On instinct, she tilted her head to the opposite side, giving him full range of her skin. She bit her lower lip, her eyes rolling back into her head as she stifled the moan that he elicited from her.

The clothes came off before Ezio picked Anna up in his arms and fell into his bed with her.

Neither looked at the other as lust took over, both were as heavily scared as the other and each had a tale to tell. For the time being it was a mutual expression of hormonal urges without strings attached, they were just two young adults who had been through hell and back over the last few days and were satisfying a hunger, a desire for humanity that nothing had been able to quench. For Anna, it was the thrill she got from the emotions that coursed through her veins as he held her close to him that drove her to refuse to back down from the temptation. Tomorrow would bring whatever it would bring, for now, she'd allow herself this indulgence.


	7. Chapter 7 Farewell Sweet Sanity

Philippe pushed his steed as hard and as fast as he could as they tore across the goat paths between San Gimigiano and Monterigioni. The countryside was quickly falling apart; a group of five black robed figures had slipped into the city of towers during Maffei's onslaught and were now tearing the surrounding villages apart. The woman had looked near terrified as she had approached him with the parchment in her hand before saying, 'Boy, take this back to yer captain and with haste. I don' know how much longer I've got before they find me.' The drop had been quick, too quick to allow him even the slightest moment to inquire as to who he spoke to. She had smiled shortly, 'He'll know, trust me boy. Now, go!' she had said as the look of confusion remained on his features.

The black horse slid to a halt in the mud, the ground soaked from yesterday's rain. The sixteen year old mercenario messenger leapt off the horse, his feet hitting the ground before he made a dead sprint towards the villa. He knocked over noble and villager alike, grunts and curses flying at him as he bolted up the stairs, across the courtyard and through the open door of the villa. "Agostino! Messer Mario!" he gasped, finding the main foyer empty.

Mario slipped out of his study, Ezio and Anna in tow. "Philippe, breathe boy. What's wrong?"

The messenger slipped the piece of paper in his hand before standing, "Sir, news from San Gimigiano."

Mario lofted a brow as he opened the parchment. His eyes scanned half way through the paper before he felt as if he had just been punched hard in the chest, visibly shaken by the words as he felt faint. "Philippe, who gave this to you?" he demanded, "Be forthcoming with me, lying will get you nothing but death in this instance," he said sharply as he lunged at the boy, his hand wrapping around his neck.

Ezio worked to pry his uncle off of the messenger, the paper falling to the floor in the process. "Uncle, stop," he said as he managed to get in between the two to keep the mercenario from the would-be choke hold of death.

Anna picked up the paper, Mario unable to move in enough time, ice blue gaze reading the words scribed on the paper. _Mario, five years ago you aided my family and delivered us all from the hands of death. I fear that the Angel o' Death is angry and has come once more for me. Now it is in the twilight that I write to you and ask you once more for your aid. I fear I hav_e _not been as thorough as I once thought as the men the Pope has sent managed to find a trail of breadcrumbs that has led them straight to me 'ere, in the towered city. I pray of you please, forgive my deceit. I hold nothin' against you or yer brother, God rest 'im. I am the one at fault. Should somethin' happen to me, please, take care o' her. Take care of my sweet little Anna. She's so lost, Mario. She's a shade of what she used to be and it breaks my heart ta see her like this. Tell her this. These men have pursued me for years now. I couldn't in good conscience lead 'em to her. Tell her the things we do for those we love 'oft times don't make sense, but we know it is for the betterment of the one we love that we do them. Respectfully, E. A. Grigorios._

Just as the messenger had managed to escape one fate, Anna quick stepped past Mario, her left hand removing the man's sword breaker before her right grabbed the boy by his throat. "Tell me who gave this to you, now!" she snarled as she picked him up, anger impelling her to nail him to one of the support columns of the second story balcony. "I swear to God that I will make you a permanent addition to this structure, piece by _madre cazzo_ piece if you don't answer me."

Philippe gasped as the woman slammed him hard against the marble, "I don't...know," he gasped as he felt the life beginning to drain from him.

"Not good enough," she snarled, the point of the dagger coming ever closer to his throat, "who gave it to you!"

"Some...woman," he gasped still until Ezio came to his aid as he slipped up behind the red headed maven, a silver blade emerging from his sleeve as he held it to her throat.

"Anna, let him go," Ezio said slowly. He had come to discover over the last few days that the woman he had seen so open, so vulnerable to him last night as he claimed her body over and over again until the early hours of the morning was cut from a different cloth than most. His hands had found and traced over the lattice work scaring on her back while she was passed out of exhaustion, a testament to how truly screwed up the inquisition had been in their grilling of her...literally. The only way to get through to her when she became possessed with the pent up rage from years of abuse was to fight fire with fire. Or in this case steel.

Anna blinked slowly, the point of Ezio's blade hovering dangerously close to her throat, her eyes clearing as she shook her head. As she came back to reality, she relinquished her grasp of the mercenario's throat, the boy dropping to the floor as Philippe was able to get his first gasp of air in what had felt like an eternity. "This letter isn't possible," she said. "The woman who gave this to you must have been a part of the Maffei disaster there. She clearly hasn't gotten the hint that the bastardi no longer breathes."

Ezio took the paper from Anna, scanning through the words until the closing, "That's where I heard it," he said. "_Merda_ why didn't I think of it sooner," his eyes fell on her as a confounded look crossed her face. "I had been sitting in a tavern just outside the southern gate, trying to find a way to slip in undetected. I was about to leave when this mystery woman kicked a chair out and bade me sit down while she told me about..." he drifted, uncertain as he searched for how to deliver the fact that it was very possible he had met the woman in question and that she was very much alive. "She told me about you, Anna. About how you fight and your gift."

Mario snarled, "And you didn't see it fit to tell me this little bit of news when you first got here, Ezio?" As he moved to begin his lecturing, he caught Anna out of the corner of his eye... "Anna...Anna!" he called as he caught sight of her turning around and walking out of the villa.

Ezio sighed, this time it was his turn to go after the girl, "No, stay here. I'll see if I can talk her off the ledge this time."

It was too much to bear all at once. Just when she was beginning to feel as if maybe there was hope, when her world began to turn slow enough for her to keep up things took a turn for the worse and another part of her world was rocked to its core. "This is _porcheria_!" she snapped, "Absolute and utter _porcheria_." She spun to face Ezio, "You fonging knew she was alive, you knew it the day I said the same _maledetto_ thing to you after you and your ex split. Yet you didn't see it appropriate to say anything, to either me or Mario?" she snarled.

"Anna," Ezio said, "I swear to you that I had to clue who the hell she was! Don't crucify me for not knowing everything," he sighed, frustrated with how quickly both she and Mario had been to feed him to the wolves. "You both have done a damned good job at not telling me _merda_ and then jumping on my case when I 'screw up' due to lack of information. _Io non sono un lettore di testa, cazzo_!" he snapped.

She rubbed her temples, her head throbbing, "When someone asks you 'Hey, what happened when you were on assignment' I would think that maybe you'd be more forthcoming about things _especially when it's your mentor asking you the damned question!_" she growled.

Ezio rolled his eyes as she went off on lecturing him about how things were to be done. "Really? So instead of focusing on what we are to do now to help your own flesh and blood, you're going to stand there and be hypocritical?"

Anna felt the chill in his words, "So what if I've screwed up beyond all repair, if that's how you feel about things then fine. Why don't you go complain about how someone who's been trained in our ways since birth dared to share information with you about their experience and how much it annoyed you to someone who gives a shit." As she spun on her heel, she took the dagger she had in her hand and threw it as hard as she could, a resounding thud as the blade sunk into a tree. "I'm done with people trying to help me," she softly. "_Cazzo fino all'ultimo di voi_. If you came out here to console me, congratulations, you've done the opposite. Now get lost before I choke you out too." she snapped, tears threatening her eyes once more as she took two steps towards the staircase before leaning heavily against the wall.

A low growl of frustration left Ezio's throat as he moved to get in the last word. Mario put a hand on his shoulder, "Nipote, leave her be," he said. "She has to process this on her own, how would you feel if you found out your father were alive these last two years when you've been made the believe otherwise."He looked from Anna to his uncle, truth in the elder man's words.

"Fine," Ezio said shortly before he spun on his heel, grumbling about how much of a pain she was turning out to be. Last night she had been one person, now it was as if that woman had been a shimmer of heat off of the stones of the courtyard at his old home in Firenze.

Mario walked over to Anna, "At this point the most important thing is to bring your mother back to us alive. Take today to gather your wits and focus, I know this is not what you expected. Tomorrow, I'm letting you take to the countryside and as per your punishment Ezio will take lead and he'll be there to shadow you." Her body tensed as the words left his mouth, "Let me finish. He'll also be there to provide support in case things go south."

Anna looked to Mario, "Does Machiavelli know of this?"

Mario shook his head, "And he won't know either. Let him get angered, I am the leader of this order. He is just my eyes and ears beyond my reach in Italia. Also, I have decided to let you take up your bow and quiver once more, but if Ezio dies or harm comes to him in any way you will not be given a second chance."

Anna nodded, "Grazie, il mentore," she said before offering a salute and bow.

"Child, don't be so damned formal all of the time," Mario laughed, "you might give me a complex."

Anna had done a good job at avoiding Ezio for the duration of yesterday and well into the evening hours. He had tried to get her attention, tried to reach out to her but she pushed him to edge of her thoughts, careful to keep him at arm's length. At the time he had turned and walked away, his back to her as she stood at the opposite end of the hallway as he muttered something about her being stubborn and pigheaded just like his uncle and his father. "Good night, Nastassia," he said before he vanished within the confines of the same room the two had shared most of the day prior and night.

Now, as dawn was still an hour shy of breaking, she laid in her bed, eyes cast towards the ceiling as her skin tingled at the thought of what had happened to her night before last. She both smiled and felt tears begin to flow once more, a thing she seemed to be doing a lot lately. The first time had been strictly a lust driven session, but the subsequent sessions between him and her seemed to soften bit by bit as he slowed himself down, each time lasting longer than the previous until she finally collapsed from exhaustion. Or at least he must have thought she did as she rolled over and drifted into her usual sleep state of sleeping but having a keen awareness of her environment.

His fingers traced the scars on her back as he lay on his side. 'Mio Dio mia bella,' he had whispered, 'mi dispiace.' At the time she had opened her eyes, crying softly at his words. He was the first man to not shrink back in horror at the sight of her body, instead he laid there with nothing but pure sympathy in his voice as he spoke to her.

There was a reason why she covered herself from head to toe, the initial days following her imprisonment had been filled with hissed gossip, especially from those who saw the markings left by the Heretic Fork. _Harlot, witch_ there wasn't a word she didn't hear from the public. First it had been her switch from skirts to pants to hide the brand marks on her legs, then it was her switch from the short sleeved blouses to the long sleeved ones to hide the scripture reference she had carved into her flesh, then she added the cloak to hide the scaring left on her upper back before she completed the ensemble with the face veil to hide the scars on her neck.

Ezio had looked past her physical flaws, and still fought to reach through the emotional gunk that hid her in a veil of darkness. His eyes had refused to leave her's even as she looked away from him as he had hovered there above her. 'Anna, don't look away' he had said softly, 'It's alright.' He smiled when he was able to look down into her ice blue gaze once more, 'Better.'

The knock on her door had been soft, so soft she barely noticed it before she heard the door creak open. Quickly she wiped her tears away with her sheets and sat up in bed, "Mario?" she asked.

Sleep had not been so quick to find Ezio as it had the night previous after they finally drifted off in his room. It appeared the more he had made love to her, the more consumed he became with her. Inside of his mind, a war raged. She was beautiful, strong, but the world had spun the opposite direction and right out from underneath her. He watched her break over and over again since the church, every blow almost more crushing than the last it seemed. Part of it worried him as he found himself wanting to save her; no matter how screwed up they were no one should ever have to fight the darkness alone. The other part, well, it wanted him to stay the hell away from her.

"Hey," he whispered as he stuck his head into her room, "Mind if I join you for a bit?" The candlelight illuminated her skin in a soft glow, golden bits shimmering throughout the beautiful lush red curls that framed her face. But her eyes were dark; the brief breaks between the shadows cast by the flickering candle showed them red as if she had been crying. "Anna, you alright? I don't need you breaking on me before this..." he said as he slipped into her room, closing the door quietly behind him.

Anna rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I'm good. Something must've fallen into my eyes this morning, they've done nothing but tear up since like an hour ago," she said as she squinted against the light. "What was it you needed to tell me before I actually had to wake up?" She was careful to build her walls back up again, ready to face him and the matter at hand from behind a sarcastic façade once more. She did not need him to serve as a distraction and even though her mind and heart closed up tighter than an oyster, her animalistic desires sure as hell made their selves known. The dream she had woke from as she relived the night before in her sleep came to her mind's eye, sending a shiver up from the root of her spine to her neck.

Ezio caught the shiver, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he walked over to her bed. "I wanted to apologize," he said as he sat on the edge.

"For what?" Anna asked, lofting a brow as she leaned against the headboard.

"For yesterday," he said, his eyes finding her's, "I found myself getting frustrated and let that frustration cloud my better judgment. _Mi dispiace..._Anna."

Anna smiled slightly, "_Nessun problema,_" she said.

Ezio reached a hand out, finding she did not shy away from him as he cupped her cheek with his hand, "May I say something else?" he asked softly.

His fingers brushed past the tear stains on her cheeks, "If you must," she said. _Please, don't make this more complicated. I'm not ready for this rifiuti..._

His eyes searched her's in the faint glow, the clouds outside keeping the sky dark just long enough for the candle to still hold some strength. "Why do you hide yourself beneath all of these different layers? I have met my fair share of mysterious women, but you," he drifted as he wiped a remnant tear from her cheek. "You _mia bella_ take the cake, plate and all."

She smirked, "Would you want it any other way? If I kissed and told every single little one of my dark secrets, what interest would I be to you?" _Please let that work..._ Ezio was the only man she knew aside from Mario who held some sway over her. It didn't help that he was a kindred soul, having seen devastation of a kind himself.

"Ah, so the wit I saw on the roof of the church returns," Ezio said. _It's some progress; at least she's not lying to me,_ he thought

"Speaking of rooftops, remind me to re-educate you on the skills of rooftop running," she said as she folded her arms across her chest, "you are simply horrible at it."

"You're words wound me, madonna" he said, feigning hurt as he leaned back, his hands folding one atop the other over his heart.

Anna laughed softly, "Now, is there a reason why you happen to be remaining in my room? I think your uncle said something about us riding out this morning?"

"Mario said last night we would ride out mid-day. As far as I can figure, we should get to San Gimigiano before or slightly after nightfall which is when we'll begin our search." His tone became serious, "Can you remember anything at all of the day you and your mother parted ways or before? Anything to help us get an idea for places to look."

She knew this was coming, a day she dreaded as she nodded, "It's part of the curse of my talent...I have a memory where I can remember every last detail down to the way things smell." With a sigh, Anna closed her eyes, recalling the day she watched her mother leave and the days leading up to their escape. "The day she left, Giovanni put her on a fieno cart heading from a village near the southern tip of the Apennine pass. She was told to take up residence in a satellite village near the roads leading to Monterigioni. Mario's men frequented the paths on their way to San Gimigiano so there would have been no way she would have ever been without constant watch."Anna felt sweat bead on her forehead as flashes of the final days of her imprisonment surfaced, phantom aches consuming her body as her shoulder throbbed, drawing a hiss from her lips.

Ezio was quick to catch the wince, "Easy now," he said as he reached out to her, "What about before, do you remember where you were before?"

"There was a tower, in the middle of nowhere. That was where we were...where we..." she drifted, "Please...just...I can't..." Her head began to throb as she tried to break the barriers that still stood, her eyes opening, "I can't." She was quick to pull her hand away from him, he was getting too close for comfort.

He nodded, "It's a start," he said. "It's better than nothing, things will shake loose at some point and chances are it'll be during an inopportune moment you'll have a revelation."

Anna's eyes grew distant as she stared off into the darkness beyond the end of her bed. He was getting too close to her, "Ezio, whatever thoughts you have about night before last, whatever feelings or emotions you have attached to it. Do me a favor will you?"

Ezio smiled softly, "What can I do for you?"

"Forget them. Leave them as far away from your memory as possible. I can promise you that when this is all over, when we find my mother, I'm not staying at the villa. I am going to take her as far away from this God forsaken country as possible. I'll take her back with to Ireland where at least I know she'll be safe, where I can watch her myself," Anna said coldly as something inside of her shattered into a million tiny shards of glass.

The smile on his face faded. She had been quick to draw him near to her, but just as quick to push him hundreds of meters away from her, "Anna, what...?" His brows furrowed as he struggled to make heads or tails of what she was saying.

"From now on, it's Nastassia. That night is nothing but a memory for us, a shadow that will quickly vanish come this time tomorrow." Her head lowered, "Come the end of all of this, I will leave Toscana...and I feel that I shall never look back. Now, please leave my room. I'll see you shortly." She didn't make eye contact as he stood.

"Why are you doing this? Did I..." Ezio found himself cut off.

"Just go...please..." she interjected, her voice cracking.

Once Ezio had left, she grabbed her pillow and screamed as loud and as hard as she could into it, the sound muffled by the down within the fabric. Her world shook and officially broke into so many pieces she would never be able to assemble it again.

Ezio stood by the front gate of the village, ensuring his gear was secured as Mario double checked his armor. His mind had been left in a haze by the woman he had made love to just one night ago as she was quick to shut him out...of everything it seemed after he had her think back to the days before she said farewell to her mother.

"Nipote," Mario said, forcing Ezio to make eye contact with him, "what's on your mind that has you looking puzzled and so concerned?"

He sighed, "She slammed the door on me, uncle. An..." he stopped himself, his voice cracked as he corrected, "Nastassia officially told me to go take a flying leap just as I was starting to get close to her." He didn't think anything of it at first, but now even as he thought back he felt as if he had just had his heart wrenched free from him again. Had he begun to feel something for her?

Mario sighed, saddened by what he heard, "She'll come around...in time," he said softly. She had to.

Ezio shook his head, inhaling as he looked down at the ground, rain beginning to softly fall again, "No uncle. I don't think she will." The words echoed strangely off of his lips, as if he was saying goodbye to someone close.

Mario lofted a brow, "What do you mean, Ezio?"

He sighed, "Mario she's already making plans to run from Italia with her mother in tow when this is all over." The thought of never seeing her again upset him to the point where he wished he had a strong drink in his hand right now. "She's going to make the trip across the sea to Spain before leaving for Ireland."

Anna appeared at the gate, head to toe in black, not even donning a red cloak. Already she had her face well hidden by a veil. Only her eyes, red from crying and as grey as the sky above her, shown. Her bow once more sat across her body at an angle, her quiver slung at the same. "Auditore, _il mentore_," she said, unable to make eye contact with Ezio.

Mario sighed, her tone was as cold as ever as she spoke, "My nephew tells me you have plans of leaving Italia for good once this is over. Is that true?"

Anna nodded, "Si, _il mentore_. The safest place for me and my mother will be several countries away. I know she and my father have friends in Spain, France, and England still. I have already sent pigeons out today to give them a rough estimate of when we will be arriving. It will be at which time I will resign my post, whatever I can still claim, and leave the Assassin Order." She had nothing left now, save for a faint hope that somewhere out there the last of her family remained alive.

Ezio mounted his horse, a large black stallion that he had be given by Agostino's family. How could she be so cold again? What had he done to push her so far away? Her words cut him deep, he had been enjoying having her company, whatever of it he could claim for himself. Love was not the word, but a strong taking to her was more appropriate to explain how he had felt towards her.

Mario felt the knot well up in his throat as he watched her mount a chestnut mare, "Is there nothing I can do to sway you from doing so?"

Anna shook her head, "My mind is set. I will finish my final task and will set out as soon as it is done."

Mario nodded, "Be safe. Remember, nothing is true..."

Anna smiled sadly behind the veil, "...everything is permitted."

Both Assassins rode for the towered city. With any luck they would make it by nightfall in one piece, neither speaking to the other.


	8. Chapter 8 Shades of the Past

When the pair first arrived back in San Gimigiano, the trail was still fresh, the possibilities endless as they started their hunt for Elizabeth. After several tiring weeks of searching high and low for any sign of her shadow the trail went cold, stale with time and littered with tight lipped informants who were far too terrified to say a word. Just as it had been with Maffei and his regime, the city was once more gripped in fear as the rumors circulated with the mill in full operation. The five robed men sent from the Holy See were not from the Pope at all but a rogue Cardinal, one who was uttered to have had dealings with the woman before. While Anna had searched her mind for any possible reasoning behind the latest whispers, she heard something that concerned her; the five that were after her mother, wanted her as well.

"Anna, think!" Ezio sighed, pacing the floor in front of the fireplace. They had taken refuge within the barracks of his Uncle's men, the old villa left vacant after he had ousted the building's previous owner. Since they had arrived, his mind had been focused on the mission while his heart was forced to be silenced over the matter of what she had said to him before they left Monterigioni. "Do you have any recollection at all as to who these men are to you and your mother?" he prodded. She had been distant and disconnected, from him and everything around her, and frankly he was beginning to tire of it as the frustration made itself apparent in his tone.

Anna's hands caressed the wood of the chair she sat in absent mindedly, her eyes losing themselves in the flames that danced within the confines of the heavy stones that framed them. "Ezio, I can't. I'm not trying to be difficult," she sighed, "do you remember the night you asked me to think back to my imprisonment?"

How could he forget? That was the night that the distant glimmer of hope he had had been snuffed as quickly as it had surfaced, "Yes, I do. You completely shut down after that," he sighed.

Her eyes met his as he stopped long enough to turn around and face her. "That's my _problem_. I _know_ I need to recall what had happened but every time I try it's like I hit a brick wall. I've spent the last _three weeks_ trying to figure things out," she reached up and rubbed her temples, her eyes falling from his. "And your constant harping has done nothing but worsen the headache I've had since we got here. So can you maybe do me a favor and shut the hell up so maybe I _can_ think?"

"Do not get snippy with me, Nastassia. You know, I usually can put up with your attitude, but after everything...all the _merda_ I've had to endure because of you I'm done!" Ezio snapped.

Anna narrowed her eyes as she stood, "Oh yeah, that's it. Blame me...it's my fault that for whatever damned reason your uncle in all of his infinite wisdom decided to _force_ you to be my shadow. Not _once_ did I ever hear you say _otherwise_."

"Because at the time I actually _thought_ I gave a damn about you," he said as he rolled his eyes. "Isn't this the point where you turn around and storm off to your room as you always do? Because we both know that for as much _merda_ as you talk you know you have no stones to ever openly face any conflict without breaking down!"

There it was the whole reason why now he was so quick to show his anger and annoyance with her. The falling out she had with him the morning before they had left for the city had apparently done him more harm than she thought. "So quick to lash out," Anna snapped, refusing to back down from him this time. "I thought you were a real man, Ezio Auditore. Not some sniveling little boy throwing a fit because someone said no to you."

Ezio's eyes narrowed as he crossed the distance between them, his heart racing in his chest as he felt his hands curl into fists at her words.

"That's it, get pissed. What are you going to do?" she said as she folded her arms across her chest, "Are you going to hit me? Do it! DO IT!" He went one step farther as he pulled her away from in front of the flames and slammed her against the wall beside the fireplace. A sadistic smile crossed her lips, "Well, well, the boy does have balls."

"Why do you do this?" he snapped, "Why can't anything ever be simple with you?" Anna had managed to crawl beneath his skin once more, luring him to her.

"Would you have it any other way," she laughed shortly as adrenaline poured through her veins. His forearm had her secured to the wall as it pressed against her chest, her hands coming up and grasping him. "What now?" she said. Yet again, it took only the slightest touch from him to send a shiver down her spine. _No, not this again...please...don't..._she thought as she felt her defenses weakening.

Her body was tense still, but what he saw in her eyes told a different story. Fear mixed with some unspoken desire. "This," he said as he kissed her deeply, stealing her breath away from her by the sheer intensity behind it. Ezio could not resist her any longer, if nothing else got through to her maybe this would.

Anna tore free of his embrace, "I hate you," she whispered as the pace of her breathing quickened. Her heart pounded harder in her chest before she pulled him into another embrace, his forearm dropping from her chest. _Yes, Mio Dio yes..._

Ezio gasped as he tore free of her grasp, "Finally we agree on something!" he said. She was beautiful when she was angry, when she was depressed, it did not matter. Anna awoke something primal inside of him, some lust driven passion that he wanted to get lost in again.

"Good," she whispered before pulling him to her yet again before he pressed himself hard against her. Anna had fought so hard to resist him, wanting to cling to the darkness that she held onto for so long. Her fighting had done little more than to exhaust her, the longing she felt when she was around him only growing stronger in the absence of his touch. She wanted to hate him and a part of her did, but not for the reasons one might think or that she had wanted to believe. She hated him because somehow he was able to pry open the Pandora's Box that was her. She hated him because he could see through the lies she had made herself believe and was not afraid to call her bluff. She absolutely despised him for being able to drive her crazy with just the slightest touch from his hand.

Ezio's hands found her hips again, lifting her easily from the floor as her ankle's locked behind him. She was his whether or not she chose to acknowledge it. Christina had been his safe haven in the storm of his life, his comfort. He had been able to lose himself in her arms as he made love to her, his own little piece of sanity in an otherwise insane world. The day she chose to remain in Firenze and for as much as she confessed to love him, she made it clear where her priorities were. Then when he saw her again, she announced she was engaged, saying that she had moved on with her life out of some forced decision.

Then there was Anna. She was the polar opposite of the woman who he was still reluctant to relinquish. She was volatile, dangerous in more than one way, and the way she was able to get under his skin drove him insane. She made him feel things he never thought he ever could, desires that had apparently sat dormant within him while he was with Christina. With Anna he felt some sense of freedom as she showed him a different side of the female gender that not even the courtesans had been able to. He was beginning to find himself falling once more under her spell as she kissed him with a ferocity that screamed of some deep seated need that both had. Ezio was not about to refuse the call.

She tore free of him, "We both know this won't bode well for either of us if Agostino walked in right now," she panted, her eyes shifting from the chilling blue they had been to the brilliant azure he knew them to be.

"You raise a good point in light of what you did to me back at the villa. This is one carriage I won't let you throw me under," he said as she relinquished her grasp of his hips. Quickly he repositioned himself as he scooped her up into his arms and carried her up to his room.

* * *

Anna could stand to lie beside him no longer as she carefully crawled out from under the blankets and dressed as quickly as she could. _Not again,_ she thought as she hurried to leave Ezio's sleeping form behind her. She had hoped and prayed that this time they would be able to do this without the stirrings reappearing again, the same stirrings that scared her beyond all reason. All she wanted was what he had to offer on a physical level, nothing more. It seemed, however, that no matter how much she tried some part of her screamed to reach out to him on a deeper level and she be damned if he did not seem to pick up on it. After an afternoon of being enraptured in one passionate embrace after another, he slowed his pace down yet again. Each time was more deliberate and thought out than the last as he had refused to let her look in any other direction but into his eyes.

What was it about him that pulled her so desperately to him, calling her from the darkness she lived in every day for the last thousand or so days of her life? There had been an unspoken animosity between them, and in her eagerness to retain whatever anger she still clung to she found that she was right back in the same situation that had started this whole mess in the first place. Anna had become caught in his arms again, unable to resist him any longer. She had given into the temptation as her heart cried out for him and for as much as she wanted to distance them again, she could not. She remembered how dark her world was without him, how cold and alone she had felt these last few weeks as she fought to keep him away from her. While she was not yet ready to admit too openly to herself that she was beginning to feel something towards him, a part of her gave to the fact that she...in the darkest hours of her life...needed him now more than ever.

Once she was dressed, she slipped out of the room and down the hall. Upon spotting Philippe leaning against the bottom of the stairs, she thought twice about exiting the second story of the villa without Ezio and instead decided to slip outside via the window from her room. Her revelation about how much she needed the boy was beginning to weigh too heavily on her mind; she needed some fresh air, maybe a good whiskey or wine to clear her head. She knew the dangers of leaving alone, but she needed space to process all of this. Besides, Ezio was sound asleep and the mercenario would soon be there as well. What harm was there in a brisk run before she retired for the evening?

Near silent, Anna slipped into her room, grabbed the crimson cloak she had managed to find from a nearby tailor and once she was covered she took to the roof from her window. "Almost forgot," she said as she leaned in and took up her bow and quiver. "Just in case," she whispered.

With a grace that Ezio had once told her he envied her for, she slipped from the roof to the staircase that led to the front door, carefully climbing her way down the vine covered stones of the villa's wall. The night was brisk and cool, a sure sign that they had seen the last days of summer and that autumn was just around the corner. The sky was dotted with thousands of stars, tiny white diamonds sparkling and dancing amongst a sea of deep velvety blue. The smells of fresh stewed venison hung heavy on the night air, an obvious tell tale sign that Agostino had taken to the forests while on patrol and had brought back some prize. Her feet touched the ground only long enough for her to break into a sprint out of the front gate and down the path before she took to the fields.

As she expected, there were few people milling about. Most were farmers tending to whatever was left of the once rolling fields of golden fieno or winemakers plucking the last of the season's harvest from the vineyards. _One day I might be inclined to become a winemaker myself,_ she thought as a soft smile played across her lips.

The run was exhilarating as she crossed field and path before slowing as she approached the church she had first met Ezio on top of. She could still remember how winded he had been as he climbed to the top to speak face to face to her. He had been the first to match her wit, the first to show her what a true love making session was...and the first to reach into the abyss and pull her back towards the light.

There was little time to reflect when she heard the slightest sound of a stray branch crunching beneath someone's foot behind her, without thinking she removed her bow from around her. Her hand reached behind her in the same fluid motion it always had, fingers caressing the feathered tips before she found one. The arrow had barely left her quiver when she put it against the string, quick to apply tension as she spun on her heel to face the oncoming danger. Yet what she saw she did not expect. It was a black clad figure, face concealed as he held a bow eerily similar to the one she held. Only problem was...

He got his shot off long before she had turned around.

The arrow made no sound as the wind slipped over the owl feathers that had been used. Her sense of hearing had not detected it in enough time to allow her to properly dodge the object. The black tip of the bolt lodged itself in her left shoulder, throwing her off of her focus and causing her to misfire. The man had enough time to dodge the bolt as he raced towards her, quickly closing the distance.

Anna began to bleed slowly as she hissed, "_Fottimi_, where the hell did he come from?" she gasped as she yanked the arrow free from her shoulder. "_Figlio di puttana!_ I have to get to higher ground," she said as adrenaline began pulsing through her veins. _How could I have been such an idiot! _She winced as she climbed the wall, fighting through the pain that tore through her shoulder. She managed to make it to the top just in enough time to see her attacker look upwards toward where she had been.

"Grigorios!" the man purred, "You disappoint me. I was told you never back down from a fight." His vigilant surveillance of the mercenary compound had paid off finally as the woman he came to claim snuck out of the facility alone.

His accent fell on her ears in strange tones. It was most assuredly not Italiano. If she had to bet money on it, she would hazard a guess and say that it was near Greek as he managed to not stumble over her surname. "Fight? What fight? I'd call that a cheap shot!" she said as she hid within the shadows of the bell tower.

The man laughed, "Cheap? Hardly! Come out here and fight me like the warrior I know your kind to be!"

Anna felt her head begin to burn, the world spinning slightly as she winced. Blood still oozed from her shoulder, but she felt the effects of something far more sinister at play as a resigned smile crossed her lips. "Why do I want to fight a man who resorts to poisoning his victims before beckoning them to their deaths?" she called out as she touched a finger to her wound and brought the blood to her nose. "Scorpion venom, nice one," she laughed as she felt the urge to vomit arise from her stomach. He most certainly was not any archer from anywhere near here, and there were few that she knew of who utilized the hazards of nature to their advantage. Her father had taught her of these men, these forsaken and dishonored men who had become soldiers of fortune and were always looking to make a quick buck and just as quick to hold a grudge.

"Ah, so you do remember something thing from home, girl," he purred, sword in hand as he circled the church.

"Italia is my home now," she said as she fell to her knees beneath the shadow of the bell tower near the backside of the church. "Your powers of observation suck!"

"But was it not Macedonia that you once resided in? Or have you forgotten your roots?" He spun his sword in his hand, "I must say that I once admired your father for his abilities and skill sets. He was a worthy adversary and it does not surprise me that he taught you a thing or two about the tricks that our kind use against our prey. Pity the man died as he did, I would've liked to have seen the look on the _adi herif's _face as the blood rushed from his veins."

His words assaulted her ears like nails on glass. _A Turk? Here?_ "A Turkish dog? Well, well, it's good to see my fame has spread across the sea," she snarled as she removed her quiver from her back. "Tell me, which one of the Ottoman _stronzi_ sent you after me?" she said as she worked the bottom panel of her quiver free.

"Who's to say I did not come of my own accord," he said as he neared the back side of the church, still unable to see her from where he stood.

"Knowing your kind," she coughed as she managed to remove her cloak, "I'd say that while you claim to be as free as they come, somewhere there's a master on the other end of that leash." _Merda, where is it?_ Inside of the bottom of her quiver was a cleverly hidden compartment which contained several vials of different medicines. Unlike Ezio who chose to carry most of his equipment and provisions on the outside of his person, she chose the less conspicuous route. Some of the blends were from recipes her father had handed down to her in her preparation for what life would be like out in the wildernesses near where she had grown up.

"Who my employer is should be of no concern to you, woman," the man snarled as he stopped, hearing the faintest sound of glass skipping over hardened clay. There she was, just above him. More than likely hiding within the shelter of the brick tower that towered above the house of worship.

_Cazzo_, Anna thought as the glass vial slipped from her trembling hand and crashed on the tiles beneath her. The venom was unlike anything she had encountered before as her eyes began to blur. Searing hot sensations shot through her body and her lungs. It was becoming more and more difficult to breathe as the pain intensified. Slowly she made her way to the edge of the roof, cautious as she looked over. This would hurt, but it would be only chance to escape the grasp of the man who had cornered her so skillfully on the roof.

Anna rolled off of the roof and into the hay bale below her. She still had her bow and should the man choose to inspect the hiding place, she would stand some chance against him.

The assassin heard her drag her body across the roof but then the sound stopped. "You know, running will do little more than to speed up the rate at which the venom penetrates your blood. I had pondered on what to use against you and as much as I wanted to use a poison that emerges from a fish near one of the Oriental islands, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. The man who wants you so badly he would go so far as to bring my services into play offered to pay twice the price on your head if I brought you in _alive_," he said as he turned and walked back to the opposite side of the tower. He saw nothing but a pile of hay, as sick smile crossing his scarred face. "That's what I like about these Cardinals. They seem to be quick to utilize the immense fortune of the Church to get what they want," out of his pocket he produced a vial. "You have a little less than a minute to make your decision, come out now and live...or stay there and die. It doesn't matter to me, I'll get paid either way whether you're a corpse or not."

Anna's shoulder throbbed, her chest ached as sweat began to bead on her forehead. She was beginning to suffocate where she lay as she had a revelation about her current circumstances. The Cardinal, the mystery man who had plagued Ezio's thoughts as soon as they learned that he too was after her, had to be none other than the same High Inquisitor who had imprisoned her and her family. How could she have been so dense as to not put the pieces of the puzzle together before? Her mother had made mention of being the one to lure the five hunters off of her scent in her letter and now she found it a matter of convenience that this man would be here at the same time she was. It was very possible that her mother's letter had been intercepted before it even left San Gimigiano. Who knew at this point if her mother was even still there? Who was to say that the letter was not part of some ruse to lure her to the city, out in the open where she would be most vulnerable?

The thought of the bastard laying his hands on her mother and the frustration that had haunted her in the wake of their inability to find the woman took hold of Anna once more. Her anger stirred her enough to force her hand as she leapt out of the hay and caught the man unaware, dragging him down into the bail with her as she remembered seeing Ezio do countless times before. With her bow around the man's neck, the vial shook loose from his hands and rolled out of the hay as she wrapped her legs around his hips and locked down even tighter against him. "You wanted a fight, here it is," and with one last burst of strength she threw herself back and yanked. He struggled, harder than she had hoped but still she held on until he blacked out beneath her.

With him subdued, she limped out of the hay and searched for the vial. _God, please let it be here_ she prayed silently. She found it, but to her dismay half of the contents had spilled out but there was just enough to perhaps get her at least back on her feet and in some form of functionality once more. Anna drank the rest of the bitter liquid and leaving her bow, quiver, and cloak behind, made the slow trek to the nearest doctore's cart. She had managed to dodge one trap, but she feared she would be walking into yet another when they were able to find Elizabeth.

Something told her, that with the appearance of this new and seemingly familiar foe that leaving Italia was out of the questions until she had managed to cut the head off of the serpent that were the Templars. There would be no place safe for her or her mother until the day she ensured that happened. Except for one...

Her thoughts drifted back to Ezio and just how close she had come to potentially being ripped from the safety he offered her by her own stupidity. Things were not the same as they had been when she had started out on this quest as her previous thoughts had been reaffirmed. He was the only one who could possibly stand to save her from the man who wanted her more than anything else in the world, and from herself.

* * *

Ezio had awoken shortly before dawn to the sound of rain hitting the roof of the barracks. "_Mio Dio_ woman," he smiled as he stretched. Why was it that when he and Anna had made love that he always managed to sleep so soundly? He rolled over to find her missing. "Nastassia?" he said. Of course, as she had done previously she remained true to her character and had once more left the company of his bed. _"Merda,"_ he hissed as he threw the blankets back and dressed quickly. Had she lured him to bed only so she could go off on her own, leaving him behind?

Anna managed to make it back to the barracks shortly before sunrise, rain beginning to fall gently from above her as she limped up the stairs to the door. Gingerly, she opened the heavy oaken panel and slipped in. There were the mercenario, sleeping soundly until the night watch had returned at shift change. The villa lay quiet as she made her way up to her room, each step more exhausting than the last until finally she made it to the top of the stairs.

She did not need to go much further when she saw Ezio bolt out of his door and look quickly down the hall. Their eyes met and she could not stop the tears from falling as she stood there, her blouse soaked with her own blood, weary from her encounter and still fighting off the pain of the venom that was finally beginning to slowly subside.

"Nastassia?" Ezio gasped as he met her gaze. She looked as if she had just stared death in the face as he ran to her. His heart sunk into his stomach as he saw the crimson stains on the cream colored blouse she wore, her skin as pale as the pristine sheets that covered his bed. Her eyes were red and it seemed as if even the very air she breathed caused her pain.

"Ezio," she sobbed, "_Mio Dio, _forgive me. I was a fool." Anna moved and threw her arms around him, holding onto him for dear life.

Ezio thought maybe he was dreaming this. Was she apologizing to him? "Sh, _Mia bella,_" he whispered as she cried in his arms. "What have I told you about running off on your own," he gently chided her.

"I know, and I know now why I...I...I _need_ you. Now, more than ever," Anna cried.

Ezio pulled her away from him, "What are you saying?" he said, feeling his breath catch in his throat.

"I'm saying that I'm not leaving...I'm staying, Ezio. When we find her, when we find my mother, I'm not taking her to Ireland. I am going to accept your uncle's offer and we will live there at the villa. I am also not going to turn my back on our order," she whispered. "I am going to accept this responsibility as my own and serve out the rest of my punishment until which time I am released and am allowed to call myself an Assassin once more." No, she would not admit to the fact that she needed him on a far deeper level, at least not yet. Not until she could figure out just _how_ she would approach the subject.

It was not the confession Ezio had somehow hoped for in vain, but the fact that she was at least willing to remain around him was a start. "Then do me a favor and don't run off on me. How can I protect you as my charge if I don't even know you've left?" he sighed. "Speaking of which, what in the hell happened to you?"

"I had a run in with a black clad brute. He's working for the Cardinal that imprisoned my family some five years ago," she said as she winced.

Ezio sighed, "It took you getting beaten up before you came to that conclusion?"

Anna laughed gingerly, "Sometimes it takes me getting my _asino_ handed to me before I can remember things."

"So is he one of the ones your mother warned us of?" he asked.

Anna shook her head, "No, this man is not what you would call a typical assassin. He's of Turkish descent if I had to guess, and he uses venom tipped arrows to debilitate his targets before taking them down or to the highest bidder. Hence why I still..." she hissed midway through the sentence. "I still can't breathe as easily I wish I could. The doctore I saw said if he had his suspicions he would have said I had been bitten by a deathstalker scorpion. He's given me some medicine and something to stave off infection, but the pain is still pretty intense."

"He tried to poison you?" Ezio could not believe she had managed to survive such an attack. There were things he was beginning to understand about her that proved to him just how dark and deceptive her world was compared to his.

"Tried? He succeeded, but I managed to subdue him. However, in the process I lost my bow which will be near impossible to replace, my quiver of arrows which were all tipped in black volcanic glass from Pompeii, and my cloak," as she spoke she felt herself beginning to swoon.

"Easy now," Ezio said as he steadied her. "Let's get you cleaned up and in bed for a little bit, at least until you regain your strength while I write to my uncle your recent discovery. I won't tell him about your little escapade, I think I can manage some form of a cover story."

Anna smiled tiredly, "So long as you think you can keep your hands off of me long enough to let me rest," she purred.

Ezio chuckled, "We'll see, but I usually like my women with a little bit of fight in them."

As the two of them turned and began walking down the hallway, Philippe burst in through the door of the villa. "We found her! By God we found her!" he declared.

Anna lofted a brow, "Where, found who?"

"Elizabeth! She's been under our nose the entire time!" he said.

"What do you mean you found her?" Ezio said, slightly apprehensive about his words.

"We intercepted a message from a Cardinal this morning via a messenger we've been trying to pin down for a while now. The man wanted a detachment of guards dispatched this evening to a tavern just south of the barracks, a place called Solomon's Tavern," Philippe panted.

"_Grazie_ Philippe," Anna said before she whispered, "So his first plan failed, onto plan B."

"What do you mean?" Ezio asked.

"I have my reservations about this sudden turn of events. Something tells me, that what we're walking into is a baited trap meant for me," she sighed. "When we do this, Ezio you have to promise me one thing. You have to promise me that should anything happen..."

"I won't let it..." Ezio said before she cut him off.

"Shut up and let me finish," she snapped. "If anything happens to me, you have to promise me you'll go to your uncle as soon as possible. You're no good to me dead or captured as well."

"So what you're saying is that for as much as you want me to protect you, you want me to turn tail and run at the first sign of trouble?" Ezio wished Anna would make up her mind. First she pulled him close to her, saying that she needed him and now she stood there and said that if anything happened to her to go get his uncle.

"Ezio, please don't take this me telling you to run. I know you don't want to and I'm not asking you to. What I'm telling you is that I have a feeling I know where they'll take me should they catch me and only your uncle will know how to address the situation," she sighed. "Please, I need you to be able to do this for me."

Reluctantly he nodded, "Alright."

Anna did not know just how far this hole went, unable to see into the shadows that lie on her path. She did know, however, that with Giovanni's son beside her she would be able to face the oncoming ripples that had been caused by the decisions she had made in the recent past. Still, it was not the consequences she now faced that worried her. It was the emotions that surfaced even now while she leaned heavily on Ezio that left her shaken. She had never been taught how to show any form of affection except for the fronts she hid behind.

How in God's name would she be able to balance all of this along with what she had yet to do?

* * *

_Hey everyone, alright...so this is the last change. Mocha thanks for slapping some sense into me my dove. Be looking for a revamped version of 9 coming soon._

_My apologies, Anna_


	9. Chapter 9 Reunion

Solomon's Tavern was a nod to every single tavern old Solomon had ever encountered in his time as a man in the King's Navy. How did an Englishman end up so far away from home? The answer was simple enough and consisted of two words, a woman. It had been during a skirmish against the Spanish that his ship had managed to lose itself in the Strait of Gibraltar when a freak storm tore in off of the Mediterranean. No one had seen it coming and the bloody thing knocked out the main mast before they were able to pull in the sails. Travel was slow when the storm eased up, half the crew had died due to lack of provision and sickness before they even breeched the coast of Italy. He had decided then and there that it would be best to get lost in a new land, found a place as far away from the sea that wanted to kill him as possible, hired on the girl who would be his future wife and he had stayed put ever since.

It had only been three days ago when a stranger had come to his door, dressed head to toe in black priest's regalia. At first he had thought the church was seeking alms, but he quickly found out otherwise when the first man was joined by four others who pushed their way into his home. They threatened him and his family with death if he did not cooperate in a coup against a woman who had frequented his tavern these last few weeks. He had seen her have a conversation with a man who looked much like the visage on all of the damned wanted posters the guards insisted be plastered on every open wall.

Now he stood behind the counter, his eyes on the same woman. He had enjoyed his conversations with her; it was a rare occurrence when he was able to find another who spoke the King's English. As per her Irish blood, the woman could sit there and drink most any man under the table as she told him stories from her past. What these men wanted with her, he had no clue. She seemed like a nice enough person, what had she done to piss off the church?

"Bar keep, another if ya don't mind," the woman sighed as she slid the glass back to the man who stood behind the oaken bar counter of the tavern. This was the eighth one tonight and be damned if it did nothing for her except to warm her innards. She knew what was coming for her, and even though her time as a free woman grew short, there was no reason why she could not very well go out looking her best. She had donned a pair of brown leather pants, a cream colored blouse beneath an emerald corset cinched around her midsection to match the emerald cloak she wore. Like her daughter, she too wore heels that added an inch or two to her, just enough to bring her to the young girl's height. _Just like 'er father she is,_ Elizabeth thought.

Solomon did as she requested, turning his back to her as he had before to grab the whiskey from the shelf in front of him, his eyes momentarily shot up to the mirror to see if she was paying attention. Her eyes caught his as he reached into his pocket, his hand wrapped around the vile of liquid they had instructed him to drop in her drink. He swallowed hard as he quickly took his hand out of his pocket, a forced smile on his lips as he grabbed the bottle. "One moment, Madame," he said with strained voice.

Elizabeth had caught him in the midst of getting ready to slip something into her drink; why else would he have panicked like he did when he reached into his pocket. "Ya know, you've been tryin' that move all evenin', son," she sighed. "You might as well get it over with, it's the not the first time they've used that move on me," she said softly. She had already resigned herself to the fact that she had a feeling she was going back to that infernal tower in the middle of nowhere. _Anna, I hope you're coming quick child,_ she thought.

He sighed, produced the vile and poured its contents into her glass as she watched. "I'm sorry," he said, "I have no choice."

She smiled, "I know, Solomon. I know," she said softly as she down the last glass of liquor she would be able to have for a while. The liquid burned more than usual as it trailed down her throat and into her stomach, the familiar sour taste at the end confirming her suspicion: a concentrated dosage of valerian root, with a tinge of arsenic to seal the deal. "Agh," she hissed, "damn them."

From a table near the door, a man stood. He had to be a good head and shoulders higher than the average man. "If you know what's good for you, you'll clear out before we're forced to remove you ourselves," he snarled, his accent heavy and very German. The few patrons did as commanded, leaving only the tavern owner and Elizabeth remaining, "The goes for you too, old man!"

Elizabeth spun as Solomon fled the scene, slipped out of the back. "Ah, me boys came to find me at last!" she said cheerfully as she slipped off the stool, one hand coming up to untie her cloak from around her neck, the garment hitting the floor as she jumped up on a table.

The man lowered the hood of his black cloak, a thick burly black bearded face and dark hazel eyes were all the met her azure gaze, "By order of the Pope," he started before she intervened, planting her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, yeah, I know the spiel already. By order of the Pope I'm ta be brought in for questionin' by you jokers on shite charges of heresy, witchcraft and for bein' too gorgeous for my own good, right?" she laughed, "That Pope's got a good sense of humor, tell me, where be the cavalry gents? Is this time gonna be different for a change?"

The man snarled and drew his sword, the long heavy blade emerging from its sheath with a song, the candle light reflecting off of his golden ring, a blood red cross emblazoned on it. "I tire of your tongue; I'll make sure that's the first to leave you before I run you through."

"Ha! First you build my hopes up by leavin' the grunts at home, leadin' a lady ta think that maybe you'll do her the honor of changin' things so she doesn't get bored," she sighed, shaking her head. Her left hand came down and across her body, grasped the golden hilt of her sword, the blade singing as it left the sheath. With the gift her husband gave to her one their wedding day, she shook her head, "Then ya go and use the same threat you always have..." she said as she spun the sword in her hand. "Gentlemen, let us dance!"

The man who had addressed her lunged to which she answered by leaping into the air onto his back before running off of him as if she were running down a gangplank, the force shoving him down hard enough into the table beneath her to break the bloody thing into ten different pieces. The next man came at her high, brandishing a Scottish claymore above his head as she landed, prompting her to brandish her own weapon above her head as she held the blade by her left hand, the reinforced palm of her glove keeping the blade from cutting in to her hand. The two blades met in a shower of sparks that fell to the floor like pieces of gold, but the force of his blow sent a jolt of pain down both of her arms.

"Why don't you just give up," the man growled as he caught her wince.

Elizabeth laughed, "Now...what fun would that be..._for me!_" she said as she kicked high, landing the toe of her boot right square in the man's crotch. Much to her dismay the man laughed and broke the engagement with her blade before swinging wide left, leading her to roll right. "Ya'll are 'bout a bunch of girls fumblin' 'round with yer skirts, don't ya know that yer supposed ta lead the lady, not the other way 'round," she laughed.

She found herself face to face with some idiot who thought he was something special, swinging an over sized mace around like a massive child with a toy. Her heart raced in her chest as she dropped, her leg extended as she spun. The brute fell to the floor with a loud _thud_ as he the wood hard, the wind knocked out of him. That was when she felt it, "Ah shite," she said as she felt her stomach knot up, her head spinning as she lost the ability to control the grip she had on her sword. "You boys don' disappoint do ya," she said, her speech beginning to slur unable to stand from the floor.

There, in front of her as she struggled still the fight the effects of the sleep agent that Solomon slipped into her drink stood a heavy set man. As he moved, his black and purple robes swayed back and forth as a mighty tree in the wind.

"I make it a point to ensure my men do not fail...I see to it that the job gets done." His black gloved hand came down to cup her chin in his as he leaned down, his sharp brown gaze staring keenly into her own. "That letter was such a good idea, thank you for the inspiration, madonna. I drew from it when I allowed one of my messengers be intercepted by some mercenary brutes, the trap is set, let's see _who_ it is I catch in it," he purred with a wicked smile on his face.

Her eyes widened, "No," she cried, the world around her falling darker. Tears fell down her cheeks as she heard him order his men put her on a table and take their places around the tavern. "Be ready, my guess is she'll be here sooner than later. Once you have them bring them to the tower, I will wait for you there. I will finish what I started. Oh and Elizabeth," he hissed as he turned around to land one more blow to her, "it is so good to see you again. I am quite tired by disappointment and you, my dear, have done quite the opposite. How do you Irish dogs say ...cheers?"

My God, what had she done?

* * *

The village was quiet, too quiet for her liking. _Dananzione, just as I feared_ she thought as she held up a gloved hand, waiting three seconds before waving off to her right as she swept left of a stack of crates. Ezio followed suit, sweeping right before she waved him up to the roof, "Get up top and tell me if you're seeing the same thing I am," she said softly, scanning the surrounding area for any form of life. A farmer, a horse, anything would have been appreciated at this point.

Ezio did as he was instructed, "Which would be?" he said as he stood carefully on the roof.

"Do you really have to question everything?" she said as she rolled her eyes. "Just tell me if you see anything. "_Mo Dhia impím ort a dhéanamh ach rud amháin, rud amháin damanta agus tá tú a iarraidh dom caoga ceisteanna freaking. Cad a thugann?__"_ she said shaking her head as she ran up the stack of crates and joined him on the roof.

He turned, lofted a brow. "You know, it's not a fair fight if I don't know what you're saying," he smirked.

"_Ingenium par ac si unquam puer._ Now quit whining and focus," Anna laughed.

"_Mulier, quae erat medium, si scias nobilis Florentinus docuit forte putes taurum de hoc iterum.__"_ He purred in her ear, slipping up on her while she held her focus elsewhere.

"Touché," she purred, "now how many times did your mother make you regurgitate the lineage of Christ in Latin?"

Ezio smirked, "We were never really big Church people. At the time I could never figure out why but knowing now what I do it makes sense..."

Anna finished his thought, "The biggest advocate of faith that stands as beacon to thousands is also the biggest proponent for keeping the general populace blind to how the world works even though they preach Christian enlightenment. The Church has long held secrecy in high regards, teaching that any thoughts outside of those taught how the clergy see fit are a sin. Hence why there's an artist in Firenze that's been officially shunned by the Papacy because he seeks to further his understanding of human anatomy."

Ezio lofted a brow. It sounded an awful lot like his friend Leonardo, "How do you know of this artist?"

Anna laughed, "Da Vinci had me from the first time I saw him excavate the grave of a minister I killed."

"What?" Ezio's eyes went wide, "He told me they were donated to him for his work!"

Anna turned, "You _are_ about as dense as a rock aren't you? Why would the city donate corpses to an artist for study when the Church frowns on such things?" Before Ezio could say another word in his defense they both heard a rustling coming from the side of the building they stood on. She lifted a finger to her lips before quickly running towards the direction of the sound. She leapt off of the roof and landed on her feet, right in front of a terrified villager. With one hand on his throat and the other over his mouth she shoved him hard against the side of the building, "Scream, and I'll let my friend gut you, understand?"

The man nodded quickly, his eyes wide in fear as Anna removed her hand, "Good, now...I'm going to ask you a series of questions and you're going to answer them truthfully and wholly, _capito_?"

Again he nodded, "Si, I do, ask me anything I'll tell you."

Ezio shook his head as he watched her threaten the innocent man. She was far too aggressive, too volatile for her own good, even in light of her confession of need for him. Old habits would be hard to conquer for her, a fact that weighed heavy on him. "Good," he chimed from the roof.

"First off," she started, "where is everyone?"

"At home," he gasped.

"Not good enough," she snapped as she pressed him harder against the wall, "Why is there no one out right now?"

Tears began to well in his eyes, "They came to our houses, threatening us with death if they caught us out today. Please, I have to get home before they see me!"

Anna snarled, "Who's they?"

"The riders, from the Pope...please let me go," he whimpered.

Anna searched him for any hint of a lie but found none. The terror in his eyes was genuine, "Before I let you go, tell me this. Have you seen a woman of my height, looks a whole lot like me?"

The villager nodded vigorously, "Si, over there, in Solomon's tavern. Are we done now? Can I go home?"

Anna relinquished her grasp on the man, "Tell no one you saw us, if you do and I have a guard on me today I will find you, cut you from naval to nose, and hang your entrails from the highest tower. Get the picture?" she said darkly.

He nodded enthusiastically and ran as fast as he could away from the village through the fields.

Ezio jumped down from the rooftop, "Was that necessary? We don't just walk up to someone and threaten them with..._that_ when we need information!" he snapped.

Anna rolled her eyes, "Stow it, the object is to make them _not_ want to spill the fact that you're here to everyone they meet, these idiots talk," she said before a sly smile graced her lips, "Remember, _I'm_ not the one who has their face _plastered_ all over Italia it seems."

The two of them were quick to cross the distance from where they stood to Solomon's. The tavern sat strangely unguarded, a heavy sigh escaping her lips. There was a chance that the men who were pursuing her mother could very well still be within the village, maybe even inside of the tavern. "_Cazzo_," she hissed under breath as she eyed the building in question. For once she had wished the guards were there, maybe then the feeling of ill ease would not be sitting so heavily on her.

Ezio shook his head. There was no one and nothing guarding the tavern which meant either the guards were slow to arrive...or they were being lured here for another reason. "I don't like this," he said softly.

"No, I don't either but it's to be expected. I think our Cardinal friend was assuming that the assassin would have been a bit more successful at his craft last night and this was just a failsafe." As she surveyed the area, her azure gaze started to shift to a chilling blue once more as something told her that the _bastardi _from last night was still in the general area. _I knew I should have run the ass through when I had him in my grasp,_ she thought.

"_Cazzo,_ I'm not going to let you go in there alone," Ezio said, "You're my charge, it's my job..." Before he could say one thing further Anna had him pressed hard against the wall, stealing his breath away with one of the most intense kisses he had been on the receiving end in a long time. He slipped his arms around her, pulling her close to him as he let his tongue dance across her's.

Anna broke the embrace, pulling away from him long enough to look into his eyes, "It's your job to trust me and let this happen," she whispered. Her heart sunk further into her stomach as she pulled away from him, "Lay low, this shouldn't take long."

* * *

The tavern was fuller than she expected, nothing looked out of the ordinary as she scanned the room for any sign of her mother. It had been five long years since she had last laid eyes on her, the day she left her with Mario burned into her memory. At first she saw nothing until out of the corner of her eye she caught the glimpse of the deepest emerald she had seen. Could she have made it any more obvious?

Even against her better judgment as her mind screamed at her to remain calm, she gave to the rush of adrenaline that pulsed through her veins as she made her way quickly to the table near the back. Tears began to well in her eyes as she sat down at the table, "Can you point me in the direction of Scarborough Faire?" she said softly. The song was one her mother sang while she stood outside and hung the wash out to dry, it had became their code for the dark day that the family should be split apart by the enemy.

With a groan, Elizabeth picked her head up slowly from the table. The other woman's voice was thickly laden with an Italian accent, so much so she didn't recognize it. "Depends on who's askin," she said as she brought a hand to her forehead. The room still spun, but mercifully the world was kind enough to have offered her a seat with which to sit down on. As she squinted, working to clear her field of vision, she met the most stunning set of azure eyes she had seen in a long time.

Anna felt the tears begin to trail down her cheeks beneath the fabric which covered her so well, "One who is looking for love long lost," she said.

Elizabeth heard the answer, her eyes misting over._ My God, it is her...she came for me...oh no, _she thought. "Then I don't know you," she whispered before mouthing, 'It's a trap,' from the confines of her hood.

Anna nodded, and for a moment her world illuminated in a light three times brighter than the sun, "I have to get you out of here," she whispered hoarsely, taking her mother's hand in her's and squeezing it hard. "_Mio Dio_ I am so glad to see you again," she said as her voice cracked.

Elizabeth shook her head, "Girl, we're bein' watched," she said softly, "Go, now...before..." She could not get the words out quick enough as she watched one of the men who surrounded her grab a tankard and hit her daughter hard on the head. "No!" she cried, lunging forward just to be restrained by another.

Anna's world spun as gut wrenching pain seared through her head, a confused look on her face as her world began to go black. In the last few moments she had before she passed out, she saw him. The viper smiled from the shadows, "Nastassia, welcome back to the fold, child."

_No, not this again..._

"You snake! How could you, how could..." Elizabeth screamed before a cloth was tied around her mouth to gag her.

"Keep sharp," Borgia purred, "the boy may have come with her."

"Do you want us to grab him too?" the German asked as he hoisted Anna's limp form over his shoulder.

Borgia laughed, "No, I have what I want," he said before the six of them slipped out of the back door. His trap was successful. Now all he needed do was to wait for Giovanni's youngest son to come to him. Ezio was proving himself to be quite the pest in the way of his plans for Italia; a problem he would ensure would be solved once and for all on familiar ground.

* * *

Ezio had been reluctant to let her leave him but knew full well that if anything happened this time, he would not be far behind to save her from whatever fate lie ahead of her. He had watched her count in her head before she slipped out of sight and into the building before he took to the roof, taking a position that would let him watch both doors simultaneously. That left him to his thoughts of her. Why had she kissed him? Come to think of it, why was he dwelling on it? _Merda Ezio, you know how to pick them don't you._

There was a problem with taking such a high point to watch what was about to happen. He was vulnerable to another set of eyes that were far more intent on making sure he did not intervene in their plans. _Sakın dönme, gördükleriniz sizi sevmiyor olabilir..._

Much to his chagrin, his questions on her having walked into a trap was just about to be answered as a black and purple carriage rolled around to the back door. Five men, taller than he was, dressed in black robes followed by the Cardinal exited the tavern. To his horror, he saw Anna's limp form, bound and draped over the tallest man's shoulder. "Put her down!" he cried as he leapt off of the roof.

"Ciao, boy!" Borgia said as his prizes were quickly dumped into the carriage, the movement enough to cause Anna to stir.

"Ezio," she whispered, her head throbbing as Borgia climbed into the carriage with two of his men.

"Anna, no!" Ezio cried as he moved to jump into the carriage only to be

_Got you now, boy,_ the assassin thought as he let fly the arrow that landed its mark in Ezio's upper left shoulder. _I'm thinking I like this new bow. I'll have to remember to thank the girl for her gift._

"Ezio!" Anna screamed as she heard his voice outside of the carriage. The German worked quickly to subdue her as she thrashed, managing to pop up long enough to meet Ezio's eyes, "Run! Don't be a hero! They're taking me back!" she screamed before she was silenced once more as a large hand came around with a liquid soaked piece of cloth. Tears raced down her cheeks as she fought to the last moment before her world went black. _Come find me...please..._she thought.

The carriage pulled away with the three remaining men jumping on large black horses to follow, leaving Ezio to fall to his knees in the dirt as he felt the effects of the poison begin to consume him. Searing hot pain shot through his shoulder, the urge to vomit assaulted him as he watched the man responsible for the arrow that now sat stationary in his flesh advance him. "Why?" he asked.

The man smiled wickedly, "Because your girlfriend and I have an old score to settle and you were getting in the way. Besides, she's out of your league, boy. Here," he said as he rolled a vial of medicine towards Ezio. "Take this..."

Ezio reached out and took the vial in hand. Before he got a chance to say anything further he felt something hit the back of his head hard, his world going black.

* * *

"Uncle I failed her," Ezio sighed heavily, "I let her go into that damned tavern alone. Everything inside of me screamed to not let her go it alone." He hissed as his sister dabbed ointment on the back of his head where the assassin had landed the blow that knocked him out cold until Agostino found him.

Mario put a hand on his nephew's shoulder, "She would have done it with or without your blessing, nipote." He sighed, "Do you remember anything?" The fact that Ezio had fallen prey to the same assassin's tricks that Anna had still did not sit well on his mind. _Just when I thought things couldn't get more complicated._

"Anna managed to say something to me after they..." Ezio winced again as Claudia inserted the needle beneath the skin of his scalp and began to suture the wound closed, "after they threw her into the carriage. She said they were taking her back."

Agostino sighed, "Back to the tower, _merda_ that child's going to go through it all over again," he snarled.

Ezio's eyes widened, "Are you tell me they're going to torture her...again? Why are we just standing here talking?" he snapped as he tried to stand only to find his uncle's hands pushing him back down into the chair. A fact he was thankful of as he still fought off the dizzying effects of the venom that had been used against him, hissing as Anetta finished dabbing his shoulder with the ointment the doctore had give them.

"Let's get you fixed up first, boy," Mario smirked, "Agostino, how long has it been since we launched an offensive against anyone?"

Agostino laughed, "Too long, commander. Shall I rally the troops?"

Mario chuckled, "Indeed. I tire of this village. It has been too long since I last saw anything passed the doors. Tonight, we rest and prepare, for tomorrow we ride out."

Ezio lofted a brow, "You're coming too?"

Mario laughed heartily, "I may not be as young as I was once, but I can still whip your _asino_ right?"

Ezio felt his cheeks flush, "Indeed, uncle."

It would be several days before they could get to the tower, but this time it would not take six months to accomplish the feat. Mario just hoped the girl and her mother stayed as strong as they had so many years ago. If the Templars were to come to Monterigioni right now, in the shape which she stood in now, they stood little to no chance of surviving the onslaught.

* * *

_Hail to all of my friends and fellow readers/writers, _

_So here it is, 9 but with some additions and subtractions. There wasn't much I had to change so with this posting I should be caught up and able to focus my attentions and efforts on chapter 10 "Requiem for a Soul". Thank you for your continued support and favs/follows. Mocha, you have been my rock in this storm I've been fighting with, both you and Mike. You have my eternal gratitude. Riguardi miglior, vostri...Anna_


	10. Chapter 10 Requiem for a Soul

The carriage finally rolled to a halt just shy of the entrance to the ravine. It was well passed dawn and the last thing Rodrigo Borgia needed was for some idiot of a passerby to spot them. The five he had sent to San Gimigiano had nearly botched his plans for luring the girl into his snare to start, then the head hunter he had heard tell of from his brethren across the seas in Constantinople had done little more than to let her slip out of his grip. _Head Hunter my asino, he's a joke and a fraud._ Add to the fact that the Assassin, the obnoxious youth that somehow managed to elude his grasp in Firenze, was becoming an ever increasing thorn in his side and one had the brewing of a perfect storm.

_If God does exist he has done a good job at making things that much harder for me in Italia. These people, these, Assassins...they were supposed to be long dead, wiped from existence. _The Pazzis had fallen to the boy's blade, each and every one of the sniveling little paranoid _asino bacios_ unable to defeat Ezio. _One boy, one simple teenage boy and these so called 'giants' could not stand up to him? _Perhaps he had underestimated his opponent, a thought that drove him mad with anger. How could he have been so stupid? How could the brotherhood pull the wool over his eyes and conceal a man that was quickly becoming his biggest threat?

"Cardinale," the German purred, jolting Rodrigo from his thoughts, "we are here to make camp as you have requested."

"Good, do you think it would be possible for your men _not_ to screw things up beyond all repair this time?" He snarled.

The German nodded, "I am sorry, sir...I..."

"I know, I know...you promise it'll never happen again," Rodrigo said as he rolled his eyes, "That's what you said when I dispatched you and your brethren five years ago from Roma to pursue the _puttana_ and her offspring. Then again the multitude of times you have proven yourselves to be the utter and complete catastrophic failures I once thought you to be. I should have listened to Francesco and that _stronzi_ of a son and had every single last one of you executed for that. You are fortunate I am forgiving, as our Heavenly Father is forgiving." His words were as sharp as his blade, the same that was emblazoned with the crimson cross of the Templar Order. They obviously fell on attentive ears as the man, who towered above him, cowered in the corner of the carriage.

"Yes, Maestro, a fact that I thank God every day for," the German said near tears.

"Take the women out of my sight, tie them to a tree, stake them to ground, do whatever it is you...do with your prisoners. So long as they breathe and are fairly unscathed I do not care," Rodrigo said as the door to his side of the carriage opened, allowing him to step out into the brisk Apennine air.

"Perhaps you are better off leaving them in my care," another voice purred from behind him,

"Oh? Why should I trust you, Turk? You who swore that the girl would be little issue, you who failed to finish the task which I sent him to do just like all of the other _idiotas_ have," Rodrigo snapped.

"You forget," the assassin said, "that it was I, not the priests, who led you to San Gimigiano after intercepting the woman's letter. It was I who injured the girl enough to make her weakened to the point where she offered no resistance to your advances. Do you truly think you could have overpowered her if she had not still been poisoned? Or what of her lover, the boy who you've done nothing but bitch about since you and I first met in Venice? What if he..."

"Enough of your insolence _infidel_!" Rodrigo snapped, "Take her and her mother and do whatever it is you want to with them just remember this, you belong to me until _I_ say you are done. Now go away, your very presence makes me ill."

Zaim folded his arms across his chest, "As you wish, Cardinal." The fat man was beginning to annoy him beyond all reason, doing a fine job to crawl under his skin like some disease from the whores in Italy. If it was not for the fact that the bastard had promised to pay him still when they arrived at their destination, he would have said _'Allah kahretsin' _a long time ago. The German took both red heads over his massive shoulders and followed him near the banks of the stream where he had pitched his tent, "Drop them there, by the tree. I'll take care of them in a moment."

The German snarled, "Why not now, godless creature?"

Zaim rolled his eyes, "Says he who sees breaking one of the many laws that govern his faith many times over alright so long as it is done in the name of his god. Now do as I ask and I'll spare your life...for now."The priest grunted and dropped the women as he had requested before turning to leave him alone with them. He knelt by the fire he had started, shivering against the chill that had begun to set in from the onslaught of rain from a few hours ago. He had been all over the Mediterranean, to include Acre and Damascus and still he did not do well when the seasons changed in the higher altitudes. He hated the cold, that's all there was to it.

Anna groaned, slowly coming to as the effects of the sleep agent began to wear off. Her head throbbed and her back ached as her eyes began to adjust to the dim light that managed to creep through the mists in the trees that towered above her. _Where am...What happened? Wait..._her mind fought to recall everything that had happened, clearly she was no longer in the towered city as she found herself staring at a babbling creek. A few moments later she found the tent of the man who she had seen out in the countryside searching his bags for something or another, her bow around his person. She laughed, "So, I see you are a thief _and_ a poor excuse for a head hunter. Why does that not surprise me?"

"Ah, so the witch who strikes fear into the heart of the Papacy awakens," Zaim said, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips, "You should be one to talk. You managed to fall victim to a trap, something I never thought you would ever do in my time following you from that shithole of a village to here."

Anna remained smug in her comeback, "Better a village than a mud hut, or were you not privileged enough to luck out. I've heard that your kind lives in caves."

"Maybe the poor, but not me," he smiled, "I grew up in a palace, child. I am a prince amongst my kind."

"A prince? Ha! I surely know of no prince who sees fit to bed a _Cardinale_ just to survive," she laughed.

Zaim had enough of her tongue as he stood and advanced her, quick to reach back and land a solid slap to her face, "Remember your place, woman. In my country, our women do not dare insult us. They are quiet and reserved and do not open their legs to anything and everything with two legs and a _çük._"

"Well, seems the conversation just got interestin'," her mother groaned as the effects of the knockout blow wore off as well.

"Silence whore, I know who and what you are. I guess what they say is true, like mother like daughter," Zaim hissed. "I had thought about offering you something to eat, but you can starve for all I care."

His slap stung, but not nearly as hard as Machiavelli's had, "You hit like a girl!" Anna laughed shortly. "Why don't you untie me and I'll show you how a real man should hit a woman. Better yet why don't you go and let your Master show you how it's done, dog."

"Nastassia, I think discretion is the better part of valor," Elizabeth said as she caught the death twinge in the man's eye. "Remember what your father..."

"Demitrios is dead, woman," Anna snapped, "I do not need to be constantly reminded of the teachings of a dead man."

"Why you disrespectful little girl, if I wasn't tied up, I'd back hand ya myself," Elizabeth snapped. "Listen, I know yer kind, ma boy, an' normally I wouldn't ask it 'cause I don' like ya either. But could ya do me a favor and _slap my bitch of a daughter again?_ I think she could do with a good ass kickin' and seein' as how I'm unable ta right now yer the next best thing," she snapped.

Anna narrowed her eyes, "You're supposed to be on my side!"

"I'm on no one's side when they start talkin' foul about the dead, girl," Elizabeth snapped, "I don't even know ya anymore."

Zaim rubbed his temples, the harpies' voices falling on his ears like the point of a knife on a window pane. "Enough!" he cried, "Before I run both of you through and the entire encampment!" Both women fell silent, scowls on their faces as he finally gained a moment of peace and serenity. He would take what he could get as he rolled out the crimson and gold rug he carried with him everywhere on the back of his horse, the same black Arabian he had acquired from the girl's father many years ago.

Yes, he murdered and yes he lied, but for him so long as he followed the holy times of prayer and paid his dues his world was perfectly balanced. He never claimed to be a holy warrior unlike some of his brethren had, he simply knew that one had to do what one must in order to survive even if it meant 'bending' morality once in a while. The girl was no exception to this rule as he positioned himself facing the eastern horizon, kneeling before bowing his body close to the ground with his arms outstretched as he began his prayer of forgiveness and atonement.

Anna listened to the assassin, his voice haunting and beautiful as he lifted it high to the heavens. His tonality reminded her of when she was a young girl back home, it sounded much like that of the Greek Orthodox priests who chanted high mass in a far more whimsical way than Catholic bishops ever could dream. Even though her anger burned inside of her, her heart aching from her mother's harsh words, she was able to find a little comfort as she leaned heavily against the giant tree she sat beneath. She closed her eyes, the moment in time playing in her head when she attended her first mass.

"_Papa, what's he saying?" Anna asked her father._

"_Sh, it is rude to interrupt others when they are practicing their faith," her father chided._

"_Mama?" she asked, casting her sky blue gaze up towards the woman beside her who held her hand._

"_The priest is sayin' Psalm twenty-three. Do you know Psalm twenty-three?" her mother smiled._

_Anna nodded, "Mhm. The Lord is my shepherd..." she said as she began to recite the scripture by heart._

"_No, no, not like that...remember what I told you? It sounds a whole lot prettier when you say it like I taught you," her mother whispered._

Even now, she found herself reciting the passage that was forever emblazoned on her arm as the words fell from her lips in Latin, "_Etenim benignitas et misericordia subsequetur me omnibus diebus vitae meae et ut inhabitem in domo Domini in longitudinem dierum__. Amen,"_ she whispered softly. The years had changed her voice, devotion to practicing her annunciations had given her the ability to say the words in a far more fluid and pleasing sound, and the fact that she had spent the last five years in Italia had kissed her tongue with a musical accent that had not been present in her youth.

Zaim finished his prayer and found that the girl had mimicked him, whispering a prayer in a language he had once thought that only the teachers of Christianity could utter. He knew it to be Latin, but he also knew that most Christians were seemingly forbidden from uttering the holy tongue. Only the select few who were ordained by the God of Isaac, Abraham and Jacob to share the word of the Bible were allowed to use it, all others were told it was a cardinal sin. He was taken slightly by surprise that she, an Assassin, a person who he had long been told did not believe in any mainstream faith, would grow so emotional over a passage of scripture. Her words held a quiet and unspoken reverence to them.

It was by far the most beautiful sound he had heard in quite some time.

Elizabeth heard her daughter uttering her favorite Psalm, a soft smile playing across her lips as she took the opportunity to sit back and see just how much her little girl had grown. She knew that her outburst stemmed from years of betrayal and regret, "Nastassia," she whispered.

Anna sighed as she opened her eyes, "Don't..." she said softly, "I just need some time to myself...please?"

Elizabeth nodded, "Alright."

* * *

Ezio found he stood once more in the square, the land around him unfamiliar as he watched from the shadows the scene that played out in front of him. There was a man, an oddly familiar man, dressed in gleaming white robes sobbing over the body of a woman caught in death's embrace. The man's arms slipped around her waist as easily as they had so many times before, the sweet scents of forest rain assaulting his senses as he held her close to him. Tears fell from his eyes onto her lifeless form as he sat on the ground, rocking her back and forth. She was cold, a shell of the woman he had come to know and love. A gloved hand stroked her wine colored hair, refusing to admit that she was gone. "No...come back to me...please come back to me..." he heard the man whisper. _Mio Dio, that's me...but then that means...Christina?_ He watched himself relinquish his grasp on the woman in his arms, pulling far enough away to reveal who it was he held onto so desperately.

_Anna? No..._Ezio lurched forward...

"Anna!" Ezio cried as he sat bolt upright in his bed, the rich velvety blankets and sheets falling from him to his waist. His shoulder throbbed, his body felt as if it were on fire as sweat beaded on his forehead and chest.

"Hush, nipote," Mario said, quickly reaching a hand out to steady his nephew who panted heavily in bed. "Good to see you've returned to us. I was beginning to worry that the scorpion's kiss had done far more than just daze you."

"Ugh, Uncle, how long was I out for?" Ezio said.

"Several days, it seemed as if half way through our planning you swooned and collapsed. The village physician said it was just a case of infection, but you've done little but flail on the bed since we brought you up here," Mario sighed.

Ezio fought to clear his head. He had been out several days? "Why did no one try to stir me sooner?" he said, his heart sinking into his stomach. Each day, he knew, put them farther from saving the girl he had been plagued with nightmare after nightmare over. This latest one made no sense, however. His robes looked odd in design, the place was unfamiliar to him, and the emotions he felt swirling within him had caught him off guard. He did not love Anna, he cared for her but he was still in love with Christina even against her declaration of belonging to another. He was reluctant to relinquish the last living testament to a past he wished he was never forced to leave.

"Ezio, why did you awake to Anna's name? I thought she was nothing more than a fellow compatriot to you." Mario knew the boy had kissed her, but the desperation he heard in his voice spoke to the otherwise.

He could hide it no longer, "She was...until a few weeks ago when..." Ezio felt his cheeks flush at the very thought of how she had managed to outshine him in the one place he thought no one ever could.

Mario laughed, "Say no more, my boy. You know, I could almost see it coming. The way you two look at each other, it's like two dogs lusting over a steak."

Ezio could not tell whether he should be glad or just relieved, "You mean, you're not insanely upset with me for us..."

"For what? Two young adults doing what kids coming into their own do best? Hardly, though I guess I should give you the "be careful" lecture." Mario smiled as he leaned back in the chair that sat beside Ezio's bed, "but according to the stories your father told me, you're quite aware of the consequences should certain things happen."

"Uncle!" Ezio sighed.

"I should be upset, but that girl has been nothing but bitter and cynical for as long as I can remember. The fact that maybe there's a ray of hope for the return of her humanity makes me happier than words can express," Mario said softly. "Her father was an emotionless bastard, God rest him. I think the only time I ever saw that man smile, I mean genuinely smile, was when he had drunk more than his fair share of wine."

"You mean, he wasn't like father?" Ezio asked. _Well, that would explain a lot, _he thought.

"No, farthest thing from Giovanni in fact, Demitrios was a man of a different cloth. The only time he was ever truly open with anyone was usually if he was drunk or behind closed doors. He was calculating, and when it came to his daughter," Mario sighed, standing and taking the salve the doctore had left in his hand, "that poor girl never saw how much of a good man he really was. The only reason why she has some semblance of anything else was because of her mother."

Ezio shook his head, "So the mystery begins to unravel," he said softly before Mario rubbed more salve on his shoulder.

"Ezio, answer me this. What ever happened between you and the Vespucci girl? Your father told me once that he had thought perhaps you and her would marry," Mario said.

Ezio hissed as the salve touched his skin, "Christina? Did my father keep nothing sacred?"

Mario laughed, "Not when it came to your escapades, my boy."

"Truth be told Uncle, I had wanted her to come with me here after what had happened two years ago. She flat out refused, saying she was concerned for the well being of her family," Ezio sighed.

"Well, that was nice of her," Mario said as he rolled his eyes.

"At the time I understood, but I had hoped different when I saw her again before I left Firenze to come here with Anna in tow," Ezio said, wincing as the salve began to take effect. "It was then I knew where I was with her. She said her father forced her to choose in the two years that it took for me to get back to her, whether she wanted to marry someone he approved of or hold out hope and potentially be disowned if she chose me."

"Let me guess, she chose the other guy, right?" Mario shook his head, "Where have I heard that one before?"

Ezio nodded, "Ever since I've been caught between the two. Christina I still love, but Anna..." He drifted as he thought about the red headed vixen, "Uncle that girl has me so ensnared with her I can't even tell which way is up anymore."

Mario caught the longing tone in the boy's voice, the wheels turning once more in his mind. "Perhaps, it is because Anna can offer you something more than some mere noble's daughter ever could?"

"What do you mean?" Ezio said, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"Well, if you think about it, she can offer an understanding of the life you lead now that is deeper than any of us would ever dare dream of from anyone outside of the Order," Mario said simply.

Ezio sighed, "Si, but she is...how can I say this without sounding judgmental..."

"Flawed? Messed up by a lingering past riddled with nothing but heartache and treachery?" Mario stated. "Show me a man who doesn't have skeletons in their closet and I'll dress like your mother for a day."

"You would look good in red," Ezio laughed gingerly, "it'd be a nice change from that horrid brown you are always wearing."

Mario chuckled, "All I am saying is this, Anna has a long road ahead of her and she's going to need someone there to run to when she gets overwhelmed. No one wants to be that miserable for the rest of their lives and if you two happen to fall for one another well maybe it was meant to be." He watched as his nephew's brows furrowed in thought, "When she pulls away, pull her closer. When she gets mad, romance her. When she fights you, refuse to back down. She needs a strong hand to push her into the direction she needs to go and since you've managed to get far closer than I would have ever thought, guess whose job it is to do it. Besides, maybe it'll take a woman's touch to reign your...hormones in." he laughed.

Ezio chuckled "Am I truly that bad?"

"Well, according to your sister," Mario smiled.

Ezio rolled his eyes, _"Mio Dio_," he sighed, "anyways, so what is the plan _il mentore?_" he inquired.

"It seems your fainting spell has done us some good, we've changed the plans a bit Agostino and I. He's had Philippe scouring the countryside while we've been waiting for you to come to and it seems that this Cardinal has upped security around the perimeter this time," Mario said. "An unfortunate occurrence for us, I'm afraid."

"What do you mean?" Ezio asked.

"To put it simply, this task has become that much harder. It would be easier to slip two men past the watchful eyes of the guard than a small army. For as much as my men are some of the best brawlers out there, they are also some of the loudest people I know. If I know the snake that has the women in his death grip again, he'll jump ship at the first sign of trouble and more than likely kill both without a second thought before he moves," Mario sighed as he slumped back into the chair he had stood from.

Ezio sighed, "So another sneak and kill mission then?" He had been hoping for the reassurance a group of following mercenari would offer him and his uncle.

Mario nodded, "I have also learned more about this black robed creature that did you in."

Ezio looked to his uncle, "What have you come to discover?"

"Not much, but he's a definite twist to Borgia's usual strategies. He appeared in San Gimigiano roughly about the same time Anna did and as far as Philippe gathered the man is most assuredly not from around here. Best estimate is he's from somewhere near Constantinople and judging by what he used against you I'd even venture to say farther east than that," Mario sighed softly. "I am still puzzled as to why Borgia would have hired an assassin from afar to do his bidding."

A thought occurred to Ezio as he slowly slipped into the silken shirt Anetta had laid at the foot of his bed, "He did say something to me before I blacked out. He said that the two of them had an 'old score' to settle."

Mario pressed his fingers tips together as he always did when lost in thought, bringing the tip of his first finger to his lips. "An old score..." he said as he searched his memory. "Did he say anything else?"

Ezio shook his head, "Well...maybe one thing. He said she was 'out of my league'. I didn't know whether to take it as a warning or an outright declaration of something else."

Mario thought on it. Old scores and leagues, what was this man getting at? _Come on, think man._ He searched through the years, brows furrowed as he thought and scanned through his internal archives. _Wait...didn't Demitrios say something once about a failed attempt on his life?_ "There is one thing, but it couldn't be, my God that was years ago," he said.

Ezio watched as his uncle began to have some revelation, "What is it? Uncle what is it you are thinking about? Do you know what he was talking about?" How much deeper could this mystery get?

"Many years ago, Demitrios came to your father with the first Codex page and looked as if he had just been in the fight of his life when we met him in Athens," Mario said as he watched a look of shock cross Ezio's face. "Oh yes, Ezio, your father was no stranger to traversing the seas. Anyway, he had said then that there was a man who had managed to get the drop on him outside of their family home in Macedonia. He was wearing black head to toe and wore a mask of sorts much like Anna does to conceal his identity. He bore some strange emblem on his bracer, but he did not fight like any man Demitrios had encountered. He was far more vicious in the way he handled a blade, stopping at nothing to make sure the job was done."

Demitrios had described the events that had transpired that night in the woods to the north of his home. The man seemingly danced amongst the trees, utilizing moves that only Mario had seen Anna use in the short time she was at the villa with him. Anna's father had his suspicions that he had encountered an enemy that was far older to the Assassin Order then the Templars ever were, one that dated back into ancient times. "These men, Ezio, they are as twisted as the Templars but are far older a foe than the man you face now. Anna had managed to outwit the assassin who you saw and that usually does not bode well for his kind. Any botched attempt on another's life is answered with death or worse, dishonor."

Mario sighed heavily, "We are not prepared for this and sadly, there is nothing I can do to ready you for what it is you face. He was the reason why Demitrios drove himself near mad when he trained his daughter, the reason I think now that he ran her ragged and kept himself always at arm's length. This assassin is why Anna does not fight as you do."

Ezio fought to understand what it was his uncle was telling him. The concern that filled the older man's eyes was unsettling to him. "So what do we do?"

"The only thing we can do, pray for a miracle and run in blind," Mario said.

Miracle? It would take God leaving his holy throne on Heaven High to help them out of this mess. Ezio sighed heavily, things had just gotten far worse than he ever could have imagined.

* * *

_To the fans,_

_So here it is, the long awaited Chapter 10. To those who have been following me for a while, my thanks for your continued support and follow. To those who are new to us, my thanks for the newest favorites and follows, I pray you all continue to be intrigued with this story. Riguardi migiliori, vostri -Nastassia_


	11. Chapter 11 Three Strikes

_This chapter is the darkest one yet and may have some descriptions that may be unsettling to some folks. If you are sensitive to certian issues, I ask that you wait until I post chapter 12 for a brief summary. You have been warned._

* * *

The sun vanished behind the towering peeks of the Apennines, the distant din of thunder echoing against the cold stone faces that surrounded the caravan in the fading last rays of sun that illuminated the snow caps in a soft shade of red, red like the color of the life force that pulsed through her veins. Her azure gaze drifted to the firmament above her, the stars above not more than glistening pin pricks dancing amongst the darkening tree line as God dimmed the day to reveal a sparkling array of deep blues and violets that swirled about the sky as the night hours were ushered in. With a deep and slow meditative breath in, she allowed the sweet smell of rain soaked aspen and oak to mingle within her nostrils as her ears tuned out the constant drone of stone crunching beneath hoof and wheel and focused instead on the sound of the crickets and frogs that came out to play in summer's final push to the end where the fall would soon begin. The creek whispered beside the overgrown path the Cardinal had stayed religiously to in order to avoid prying eyes above the canopy of towering trees that even now cast dreary shadows over them. The water within the small stream bubbled and filled her heart with one last sigh of reverent joy before she was once more forced to endure horrors that no man or woman should ever have to endure.

Anna fought the emotions churned within her, heart growing heavier and heavier with each passing meter they traversed the gap between her and the grey tower closing all the more. By her count, they had been road bound the last four nights, slow to travel in the darkness and still there was no sign of the boy or his uncle. It was in light of this fact she felt the chilled caress of fear press against her mind, phantom demons speaking to her in the darkness of the world now as they laughed and told tale of what lay in wait for her. Nightmarish flashbacks to the some thousand pain ridden days she had spent in the hands of the man who had left them a few hours earlier plagued her, poisoning the reserve she fought to cling to. Even now, she felt tears beginning to pool within her eyes as her throat tightened. Without a thought and without removing her eyes from the God's domain above, she reached her still bound hands to her side, finding her mother's and trying to hold whatever she could take.

Elizabeth was jerked from her thoughts as she felt her daughter slip her fingers into her fisted palm. Sometime during the last few hours Anna must have had a change of heart as cast her sky blue gaze towards the young woman who now sat beside her, fighting so very hard to retain the statuesque façade she had seen in play when she had been able to haunt the girl's shadow. With a gentle squeeze she watched the last rays of the sun fade out against her olive kissed skin. Five years, five long years had separated the two of them and indeed those months had changed the girl she had once held and kissed as a child. Her smile faded as she watched a single, diamond tear roll down her cheek. Was Anna crying? "_Ní Anna, a thabhairt suas tá súil agam go fóill leanbh__,"_ she said softly.

Anna sighed, "I've not given up yet, mother," she whispered as slowly she dropped her eyes from the sky above her. "I'd ne'er dream of giving the serpent the satisfaction," she growled.

Elizabeth nodded, "That's my girl. So, seeing as it's just us and the German in here while our good Cardinal friend rode on ahead, tell me more of this boy ya've met. I must say I'm impressed, he's quite the looker."

"Are you kidding me? _Mio Dio_ woman, is that all you can think of at a time like this?" Anna said rolling her eyes at the fact her mother seemed oblivious to their current quandary.

"I was just sayin', 'tis all so don't go getting' yer corset all in knots," Elizabeth sighed as she leaned her head back against the plush seat. "So, what's he like? I bet he's a screamer..." she prodded, unable to stop the playful smile that graced her aging features.

"_Máthair! An bhfuil tú dáiríre?_Are you seriously asking me what he's like in bed?" Anna shivered, "that's just...ugh I don't even want to contemplate why you'd even think that way! He's young enough to be my brother!"

The German stirred, one hazel eye assessing the conversation from beneath a thick and bushy black eyebrow that had clearly gotten the younger of the two harpies upset, "Enough!" he snarled. "For the love of God, shut the hell up!"

Anna laughed, "You know, Orthodox priests are allowed to marry whom they wish. Perhaps you would do well to switch allegiances, or is it that altar boys suffice enough for your fleshly desires?"

The German snarled, reached a hand back and instead of connecting with Anna, connected with Elizabeth. Anna narrowed her eyes and moved to lunged when Elizabeth pulled on the chain that connected them, "Down girl," she said. "The man hits like the girl I knew 'im ta be, don' be gettin' us in any more trouble than we can handle an' by the looks of things chokin' the life outta the moron would do nothin' but get us a date with St. Peter sooner than later. As much as I'd love ta see yer father, sweetheart, I'm in no hellfire hurry ta see 'im right now."

Anna reluctantly sat back against her seat, the German smiling smugly before drifting off into a heavy sleep once more. "Why did you stop me? We could have easily overpowered him!" she cried.

Elizabeth sighed, "And if we had what then? We're surrounded on either side o' us by men who are bound by oath ta ensure we arrive to that infernal hell hole in one piece an' let's not be forgettin' that brown eye cretin that drugged you." Her voice was sharp, as sharp as a blade, though no more above a whisper in tone. "By God, child, why don't ya use that pretty lit'le head of yer's for more than a thing from which ta hang that hood of yer's from, hm?" she said before working one of her palms free to slap her daughter up the backside of her head.

"Ow!" Anna snapped, "What was that for?"

"Just ta make sure ya got the hint. Maybe the stingin' will hammer my point home!" Elizabeth said before smiling once more as she lapped the small trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth. "Now, you were just about ta indulge my inquiry behind this boy. He might be young enough to be my son, but just 'cause I might be a wee older than 'im doesn't mean I'm dead yet. Remember what it is I was before yer father entered the picture," Elizabeth purred. "That boy would've made my heart skip a beat."

Anna felt her cheeks flush. Ezio indeed had that effect on most women he met, a fact that for some unknown reason drove her mad with jealousy when she would watch his interactions with the young women he met. He was a flirt, a hopeless romantic and the most determined little git she had ever encountered. Unfortunately for her, her mother caught sight of the coloring of her cheeks, her grin growing ever wider.

"Oh ho, so those boyish charms have swayed the hard hearted maiden? I'll take that as a yes," Elizabeth crowed.

"I never said that," Anna said shortly, "You've taken the blood rushing to my cheeks from being stuck in this infernal, over heated thing with you and the windbag across from us as a silent agreement."

"And so quick to get defensive, now I'm dyin' ta hear the story," Elizabeth giggled as she shifted in her seat to face her daughter. "Come on, don't be denyin' a poor ol' woman somethin' ta dream of!"

Anna felt as if she was about to gag, "All I am going to say is he's an insistent, whiney little git who can't seem to understand the meaning of the word no."

"Ah, like yer father when I first met 'im," Elizabeth smiled.

Anna lofted a slender brow once more, "I could hardly envision that man being anything less than the stoic statue he seemed to eternally be," she said in slight disbelief.

"Oh a lively one yer father was. Did I ever tell ya how it 'twas we met?" Elizabeth said her smile unable to leave her lips.

"I hardly consider this an appropriate time..."Anna found herself cut off as her mother continued in blatant disregard to her gentle yet firm chide.

"It was on the northern most shores of the Eire when we first met. I was just a girl, near yer age if my memory recalls right. The sky was bright; one of few days that the isle experienced the warm caress of a summer sun an' the clear western wind fluttered my sky blue skirts about me. I hadn't yet made for the shore from the brothel, no I was quite content to just lie all spread about the grass an' stare at the fluffy white cotton balls above me head. It was then that his shadow fell on me, a soft smile on his lips when he held a charmed bracelet above me, cleared his throat an' purred 'I think you dropped this.' I sat bolt upright, I did, I had never heard the man comin' at all." Elizabeth leaned against the back of the bench and stared wistfully out of the window.

"I was caught so off me guard that no sooner had I sat up that I was on me feet and ready to throw down with 'im. 'It's not polite to be sneakin' up on a pretty maid like that,' I said. His smile faded and he bowed deeply, like some noble and said 'A thousand pardons m'lady. I had only but followed you last night after I had been summoned to your home to see to one of your many sisters from the inn which I currently reside at. It was then I watched this item fall from your delicate wrist but was unable to gain your affect...I mean attention...' He drifted at that point an' my girl, I must say it was the ability of cheeks to turn the rosiest shade of pink I had ever seen that began to win me over," she smiled.

Anna rolled her eyes, "I fail to still see how this applies to my current situation, woman. The boy is a far cry from the debonair gentleman you encountered and ended up lying with to create me." She nearly snarled as she continued her declaration of her plight, "He takes nothing seriously, quick to voice his thoughts and to complain like a child. He shows off, refuses to take no for an answer. I told him we were from two different worlds and still he refused to back down! " As she continued her rant, the tone in her voice went from disdain to quiet admiration as her skin tingled at the thought of his arms around her once more.

"He is far too cavalier with his heart, quick to engage in behavior unbecoming his station and just as quick to ensure his advances do not go unnoticed. When I pushed him away he refused to accept my reasoning, pulling me closer still to him..." For a brief moment, her words caught in her throat as she thought she heard the distant echo of Ezio's voice within her mind.

Elizabeth moved to lift her hands to Anna's face, the same palm that had made its mark on the back of the girl's head now gentle to caress her cheek. "Why do you fight it? Is it that he scares you?" she asked softly.

Anna remained silent, still as she found herself unable to breathe in that moment. The last few days had given her time to absorb and sort through the mess that had become her life. Slowly she shook her head, "It's not that." With a sigh she started, "Before the assassin got his hands on me, I had it in mind that I was going to take us both back to Ireland and that I was going to leave the order behind. Then when the _asino _found me and wounded me, I ran back to him like a star crossed lover and confessed some..." She stopped herself as she looked to the German who once more feigned sleep as she was sure he was looking for anything to hold against her. "Let's just say I'm about as confused as they come when it comes to that...boy."

Her mother shook her head softly as she rolled her eyes, "I knew he'd be a good match for you. I had never met 'im until the day I saw 'im in that tavern. He is everythin' yer gonna need now, my girl. Whenever we get out of this mess, an' we will as much as the two windbags as ya call them don' want ta admit it, ya have ta promise me you'll hang onto that boy for dear life an' never let go."

The carriage rolled to a halt, the German called Titus stirring as one of several crimson and black clad guard captains advanced the door to open it. After the towering black clad priest exited the transport he yanked the chain that bound mother and daughter together hard enough that both were jerked and nearly thrown from the thing. "Titus, there is no need to get so rough with our guests of honor," Rodrigo purred from the entrance to the tower that even now, as Anna's eyes fell on the building her heart raced in her chest. "I have taken the liberty of having a few extra additions added to the rooms which we will be spending most of our time in."

"Well I would most certainly hope ya have son," Elizabeth smirked, "'cause ta tell ya the truth, yer brilliant band of bonny boneheads have done little ta impress me and the fair maiden here. I'd hate ta think ya've wasted yer time and ours on the same ol' shite as last time!"

Rodrigo stepped forward slowly, a smug smile on his lips as he looked both women over from head to toe as if assessing a couple of prized mares. "Come now, did I disappoint either of you last time?" he said as her interlaced his fingers together, clasped his hands, and allowed them to rest on his bulging belly.

Anna smirked sarcastically, "Cardinal my screams were just to get you off of me, other than that I found you to be quite...lacking downstairs if you catch my meaning when last we met. I can only hope you've upped your game."

Rodrigo's dark gaze narrowed sharply as he reached a hand back, only to be caught mid-swing by the black leather gloved hand of the Turkish assassin who stepped beside the Cardinal from seemingly nowhere, a thick brow lofted at Anna's words. "Nuh-uh, not yet fat man, when I've gotten what I have come across this God forsaken continent for then you can have the remains but until then...remember we had an agreement." Zaim glanced over his shoulder at her as his grip tightened around the man's wrist upon finding that for as sarcastic and fake as the girl could be her eyes told that she was not bluffing when it came to what she had just said.

He slowly turned his gaze to meet Rodrigo's as he snarled, "If I hear tell that you've in any way sullied her, I can promise you that I still will have no qualms about running you through."

"You would die trying, infidel!" Rodrigo snarled.

"No, I would die successful in my task. I _never_ fail a task which I am set to," Zaim said darkly.

Anna's keen sense of hearing detected the words that even now sent a chill down her spine and made her wonder just what in creation drove a man who had been more than pleased to hand her over to her enemy to threaten the same if that enemy dare attempt to defile her once more. Her eyes found the odd symbol on the Turk's bracer, quick to study it before the man jerked it away from her line of sight, allowing the Cardinal to rub his wrist gingerly before commanding the pair be taken into the tower. A recollection surfaced from memory of having seen that same marking once before many, many years ago it seemed now. It was a dark night, in the woods from near her home, the same that ignited her father's feverish training regimen that pushed her to her breaking point and well beyond some days. _Black Guard? In Italia?_ She thought as she and her mother were escorted into the tower by Titus.

Things had just grown more complicated it seemed as the hole grew far deeper than she had wanted it to at this exact point in time.

* * *

Zaim stood outside of the tower, the sleek black Arabian he rode upon shifted uneasily where she stood as she snorted and chewed nervously on her bit. He advanced her, raising a hand to pet her slender snout softly, "Hush now. I know, I sense it too," he said. She nudged his hand in seeming response to his sympathetic tone as he pushed her away gently. Something within him screamed that the Templar snake was not to be trusted and would cross him the moment he had been given the chance.

It was agreed by both parties involved that Zaim would accept half of his payment, the monetary portion, upon delivery of the girl to the Cardinal for questioning and once that deed had been accomplished he would then take her and her mother as the other portion of the payment. The fat man would have his information and he would have his chance to finish the job that had been taken from him by the girl when he had been given the opportunity to go after her father in retribution for him having taken one of his own by the blades he so skillfully wielded. While most would have let things lie, he could not. As much as his brethren had pled with him to let the event slip passed him, there was too much bad blood between Assassin and Black Guard as it was. They had, after all, abandoned his kind after wiping the king from the face of existence far before the time of Christ and striking them from the record books as if they never existed. The few numbers that were left after the purge had been forced to disband and take up residence as far away from their beloved Judea as possible, pushing them to the hellish and abysmal coasts of Constantinople.

"Where is your master, hound?" Zaim inquired of one of the four other black clad priests who milled about the outside of the tower.

"Il Cardinale will be out shortly, he has to," the man smiled as he heard the distinct, high pitch scream of a female enduring some torment, "finish with his current task and he will see you."

Zaim narrowed his eyes as he released his steed, "What are they doing to them in there?" Something was not right with this picture.

"Oh the usual sort of things you'd expect to find in the old offices of the High Inquisitor," the priest smiled knowingly.

Another scream filled the air, followed by another which then drove Zaim to push past the priest, threaten the guards at the door with bodily harm if they dared so much as raise a finger let alone an alarm, and make his way into the tower. It was then he saw one of the most unsettling sights that only acted to fan the flames of disdain towards the Templar serpents he had the unfortunate pleasure of working for.

The girl was strapped securely to a device he knew to be called, in common tongue, 'the rack'. The thing was of most sinister intents, pulling at all four points of both wrists and ankles as it stretched its victim taught. It was then that the wheel would be turned, the device would creak and groan and force tendon, ligament, and muscle to undergo forces that would eventually cause tearing within the joint, dislocation of said joint or even separation of the spine in some places. Four times out of ten, the victim's shoulders and hips would be permanently displaced and if that joint in question were ever to be reset and they survived the sheer shock of the act then they would live their lives in excruciating pain and physical stress that no ointment or remedy would ease.

However in most cases, the man operating the device would stop just shy of that point as the information would eventually be extracted. How did he know these things? Because of the few of his brethren who had encountered similar treatments a decade or so ago when torture was the main way that the Christian church ensured they gained a confession from supposed 'guilty' men at least. Never though, did he dream he would see the device used against a woman. Not even the great kings of Britannia would use the device on a woman only out of respect for their gender. The sight angered him. The girl was his enemy, always would be until he was able to watch the life slip from her eyes in payment for the sin that her father had committed, yet there were some lines that were never meant to be crossed. This was one of those lines.

There were more creative means of extracting information from people that would not inflict bodily pain.

"Ah, Zaim," Rodrigo said as he held up a hand and Anna was granted a moment's reprieve, "Brother Anthony said you were looking for me."

Zaim felt his hands curl into fists as he refused to take his eyes from the girl, "You owe me payment, Cardinal."

"Payment? I do not remember agreeing to such terms," Rodrigo said matter-of-factly.

Zaim's eyes narrowed as he met with the shorter man's gaze, "Half now in gold florin, the other when you have gotten your location. That was the bargain.."

"I never remember making that accord," Rodrigo smirked, "I remember telling you that I would pay you the monetary amount should you bring her to me yourself, not assist in her capture. You failed me on that part and as such our contract is null-and-void."

"Think twice on this, fat man," Zaim snarled, "Cross me and I will have your head."

"Look around you, Turk," Rodrigo said, motioning to the guards that swarmed the area. "You are surrounded and it would be a fool's errand to contemplate killing me at this moment in time. For as much as you say you are not concerned with dying, I would like to call your bluff. No man, saint or sinner alike, it unafraid of death's cold grasp."

Zaim smirked, "I am neither, fat man. You would do well to remember that." He folded his arms across his broad chest, his eyes falling to the girl whom now looked to him in mild, but pained admiration. "I will haunt these halls as a shadow from the depths of your darkest nightmares, Cardinal, until you come to your senses," he said before bowing at the waist and turning on his heel.

As Zaim left the room, Rodrigo was unable to hold back the growl that rumbled within the deepest parts of his throat. "Damn the demon," he snarled out of earshot from any of the guards who flanked the room. _When I am done with this puttana and her ilk, you are next on my list. By then, I will have the entire Papal army at my disposal._ Yes, the plan began to form in his mind as he turned with a rather amused look on his face. "Once more," he commanded. The wheels on the rack spun and pulled on the girl again, eliciting yet another scream from her lush red lips.

* * *

Anna's body burned from exhaustion and the heat of the pain that coursed through every fiber of muscle, tendon, vein and inch of skin she had. The same room that had served as her place of torment, doubled as her cell, thus leaving her imagination to run rampant with thoughts of what lay in wait for her in the evening. Mercifully, the torches that had at one time illuminated the chamber in a light that was nearly as bright as if the sun itself hung from the ceiling had begun to fade and left her only to bathe in the golden rays of the sun as it rose and peeked through one of five windows above. The stone behind her chilled the still seeping wounds cried bloody tears from where the whip had mercilessly beat her until she could no longer stand.

The average male victim can withstand fifty lashings before the damage would claim their lives, and she had endured forty-five.

She leaned her head back, even the slightest brush of her sweat soaked auburn locks drawing a hiss from her lips as tears streaked down her face. Even the sheer act of inhalation caused her shoulders and chest to throb and pulse. It did not matter how she positioned herself where she stood, she could gain no relief from the persistent twinges that were only aggravated by her inability to sit. The Cardinal had left nothing to chance and ordered her hands be shackled to the wall some twenty centimeters above her head and twenty centimeters past shoulder width out. Her knees shook and threatened to give, her musculature contracting in one last attempt to protect her hips sending her towards the ground involuntarily.

"_Figlio di puttana,_" she screamed as her weight now became supported wholly by her wrists. Anna gasped as she tried to pull herself up but found herself unable to do so. Her eyes drifted towards the beam of light that filtered through the window, flecks of dust sparkling like tiny prisms as they danced in and out of it. A smug smile touched her lips as she licked a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth, "Well, well, and so the serpent slithers into his garden to play."

"So the angel of death has a dark side after all. How...enchanting," the man purred from the darkness.

Anna's heart raced in her chest, "I do not think I am better than any-one human who lives and breathes as I do. But you, _presagio di morte,_ I know I am better than any of you and your perverted brethren that I have since cast into the deepest recesses of hell."

Rodrigo emerged from the shadows that had hid him well as he watched her struggle to maintain the stoic exterior she had been known for. "I have searched all of Italia for you for the last five years," he purred darkly. "I have to admit that you left quite the impression on me when last we met," he smiled softly.

Anna's breath quickened in her chest as he neared her, fighting to stand tall against him but failing as she felt her musculature spasm once more. Rodrigo grabbed her face in the palm of one hand while the other grabbed for her breasts, staring her in the eye, "You have truly grown into quite the woman, Nastassia. Too bad no man will ever want you after what I will do to you tonight."

Anna spat in the Spaniard's face, leaving him to grimace in distaste. It was in that moment she reared her head back and as he came closer to her she lunged forward, her skull landing full force against his, "I've learned some new things. I'm not the little girl you once mistook for a weakling, _stronzo_," she snapped.

Rodrigo snarled, "_Puttana!_" he snapped as he regained his footing, removed his sword from its place at his waist and cold-cocked her with the hilt. "If it weren't for the fact that I needed you, alive, I would have run you through you arrogant twit!"

As the world around her spun, the Cardinal tore her loose fitting cotton slacks free of her, exposing her lower half to him. Her hips were forced to part wide enough for him to slip between her thighs; he had grown broader than he had been when last he took her and the act now sent searing hot pain through her, perhaps a final act of kindness from the Heavens as it numbed the area against his assault. A sickening groan fell against her ears, but still she could do nothing more than allow him his sinful indulgences. While the Spaniard thought he was able to get away with the deed which he now did against her, in truth the pair was not alone. There was another set of eyes that peered through the darkness, another person who bore witness to the dishonorable act that took a beautiful thing and contorted it into a miserable shadow of its former self.

Zaim had walked down the halls of the tower, wandering the stone stairwells and doing his best to toy with the guards who had the unfortunate pleasure of being assigned to the morning patrols. He had been in midstride when he heard a guttural grown waft down the hall. His eyes narrowed as he came to the realization that the fat man was committing one of the oldest and foulest sins in the history of mankind. _That serpent! _He thought as he shifted his direction and followed the path that led to the chamber; hand ever ready on the hilt of his blade as he rounded the corner and prepared for the resistance that surely lie in wait for him. What he saw angered him beyond reason as the girl looked to him.

The Cardinal, dressed in the proud regalia of a man who was faithful to the Church, showed just how truly fake and heretical he was as he had her pinned to the wall. He had an unfair advantage as she was weak, broken, and unable to fend off his attacks as he drove himself into her over and over again. He should have not cared about it; frankly the idea of taking the girl's lithe form had crossed his mind on multiple occasions. She was young, beautiful, and those eyes of her's when first he had seen them had mesmerized him, a thought that was as unsettling as it was curious. He had refrained from having illicit relations with members of the opposite gender not out of the fact he held no interest but he felt that women were nothing more than an enchanting distraction. While being a man nearing his fourth decade of life, he realized it was queer of him to not have a wife. In fact, he should have sired several sons by now, but he had dedicated his life to an order that demanded blood be paid to regain the honor they had lost so many centuries ago.

It was for that reason that even now his anger flared and groaned within him as he emerged from the shadows. "You have crossed the line, fat man," he snarled.

Rodrigo finished and dropped his robes to the floor, "I have had about enough of your meaningless threats," he snarled. "Titus!" he snapped and as ever a good dog would the German emerged from an antechamber.

"Yes, Cardinal?" he said, his massive hand clutching the hilt of the Scottish claymore, the golden handle fit perfectly within his palm.

"See to it that our Turkish friend is given...appropriate accommodations," Rodrigo purred.

"With pleasure," Titus smiled and with the sound of metal on metal, he drew the massive blade and wielded it high as he advanced Zaim quickly with a snarl.

Zaim ran forward, drawing his Turkish kijil with his right hand from the hilt on the left side of his hip, the sword glinting in the sunlight as he zig-zagged in front of the German, stepping wide and to the right of the towering priest. As the priest brought his heavy sword down towards where he had been just a few moments before, he swung left, the blade singing as it cut through the air and made contact with Titus' neck. Panting he stopped and spun once the cut was done and watched, waiting to see what would happen next.

Titus took two steps forward, blinked twice, and drew his last breath and blood began to seep from the thin red line along his neck before he fell to his knees as his head separated from his neck.

Rodrigo's eyes went wide as Zaim pointed his blood soaked blade at him, "Remember this, fat man. While you may have won this battle, the war is hardly over and you can be rest assured I will be back for what is owed me!" He spun his blade within his hand, the blood sliding effortlessly off the highly polished steel before he darted for the door.

One by one, the guards who stood in his way fell to his blade as he left a bloodied and stagnant trail of human wreckage in his wake. Once he hit the door, he brought his fingers to his lips and whistled, the high pitched tone summoning the black mare to his aid. He took eight running steps, grabbed the saddle firmly in his hands and lifted himself into it as he swung his right leg up and over the powerful horse's flanks. Zaim never stopped to look behind him as he rode hard and fast up the goat trails to the road above the tower. The Cardinal had committed three strikes against him, and it was with the third that his attention focused from exacting his vengeance on the girl to seeing to it that the threat that was the Templars was dealt with.

It had been a thousand years since Assassin and Black Guard had stood against an enemy together; the war could wait...for now.

* * *

_To my friends and fans, _

_A thousand humble apologies mi amicos and amicas as I have been horridly busy as of late. The slave drivers of the wedding industry have sadly kept me from my loves, but that should change in the new year as I am bound to a steadier schedule. Again I found myself allowing the story, in particular, the Black captain himself, to lead the direction. _

_As a sidenote...I have returned. _


	12. Chapter 12 Burying the Hatchet

Templars. Never in the many days had Zaim lived had he ever encountered a more ruthless bunch of arrogant, egotistical, lying, slimy, two-faced hypocritical sons of whores than the lot he had encountered within these last few months. _Pirates have more honor and are less likely to double-cross than the fat man's call boys,_ he thought in severe annoyance as he doused himself once more with water from the stream he now bathed in. He could not count a single place on his person that had not endured some form of assault as he fled the tower, much to Borgia's dismay, save for maybe of course the familial jewels. All because the man who wore the colors of the Holy See, colors that told the world that here stood a man of honor and of honesty and integrity, revealed himself to be not of those traits but instead had shown himself to be a coward, liar, and cheat.

The girl, the poor beaten and bloodied shade of a creature she had been who had hung from the wall dazed by her assailant. The image of what he had walked in on still burned as hot this morning as it had two days ago when he had fled that God forsaken house of torment. His blood churned within him, a feat that had not occurred during the time since he had received his official title within the Guard, over the memory. People called his ways underhanded and dirty, he fought as he had been taught to, utilizing his environment and the tinctures nature had so provided. Yet never would he dream of using such horrid tactics against a female opponent, and he had seen his fair share of fem fatales to be sure, as he had seen occur in his short stay with the Cardinal. What he had seen transpire, ugh, it sickened him to no end._ A true wolf in sheep's clothing, and people question my ethical standards and moral alignment? Surely these Christian idiots should instead question those who claim to hold such sovereign reign over them. _

When he had bathed and broke camp, Zaim would continue his quest to find the girl's mentor and her lover. He remembered hearing some of the Cardinal's men complain about some annoyance within the mountain passes, whispers that Auditore's brutes had been scouring the countryside in an attempt to find their nest. Surely, by now, the morons had undoubtedly managed to avoid the guard's worthless advances and managed to perhaps limp home alive enough to offer report. After putting a few days between himself and Borgia, and from where he stood, it would not be long until the pair made their way through the winding roads of the mountains...at which time he would formerly introduce himself...

...and make his offer.

The sun finally broke through the death grip the clouds had held for several days on it, the brilliant golden rays shimmering across the occasional still point of the water around him, illuminating his olive hued complexion. Time had been kind to his being, he held no true signs of his fourth decade save for maybe the shimmer of grey throughout his chestnut hair which he kept short, cut close to the sides and back of his head but allowed to grow a bit longer on top so as to form thick waves. Unlike others of his kind, he did have a beard but only about the sides of his mouth and his chin so that both beard and mustache framed his mouth. The rest he kept clean cut away from his neck and cheeks, allowing those who would see him without the black veil he wore to take note of the strong definition in his jaw structure. His eyes, as golden as the sands of the Sahara, embraced by a deep chocolate ring, were beginning to show signs of just how much he had seen in his life. Shadows that had been present for as long as he could remember still danced through them every now and again though why he could not tell.

It was then, as he stood within the cool embraced of the water, he felt himself come to a still place, his gaze meeting the one reflected back at him. His mind pulsed uncomfortably in his skull, a near rhythmic drumming beginning yet again in the form of a dull ache. Headaches, as the physicians had declared, like these were becoming more and more frequent it seemed the longer he remained from home. These infernal things made no sense to him; he was in peak physical condition as his cut physique could provide testimony for, so why did he suffer so from them? He was not deprived of the things he needed to survive, as far as he knew he was able to acquire enough hours of fairly undisturbed sleep, he even considered himself balanced when it came to matters of mental and spiritual well being. He dedicated several hours a day to meditation and prayer at which time he would allow Allah to be his confidant as he would lift his concerns to the heavens, knowing that He would listen and that the solutions would come in time.

Yet it seemed as of late whenever he would so much as look at his reflection, his mind would pulse and the dull roar and ache he had come to know would begin. It was almost as if he was trying to remember something he had long forgotten, as if his conscious mind were trying to break through some barrier that was keeping some hidden secret from being discovered. Now, as he moved to step from the water to the pebble strewn banks of the stream, he winced as he grabbed for the blanket that sat upon a large boulder that looked as if it had rolled from somewhere along the road that sat hidden through the thickets and trees. He had no sooner wrapped the thick cotton item around his person when the world about Zaim began to pitch wildly to the right as it spun around him, the sheer sensation causing him to stumble. _What the hell?_

His horse, the beautiful black Arabian mare he had been so blessed with, whimpered from where she stood, pawing at the ground beneath her as she watched him momentarily lose his footing. Between her teeth she took the rope that stuck out from the knot he had made and tugged twice against it, the knot loosening enough to allow her free to come to his aid. A smile played across his lips as he still grimaced from the growing ache he felt, watching the stubborn animal free herself so easily. "It would appear as if my knot tying skills are not quite as they once were," he said as he attempted to loft a brow, his hand loosing itself within the confines of her thick ebony mane.

The two walked the twenty or so steps from the water's edge to where he had pitched his squatty black tent in the shadow of a towering aspen. _If I can just get to my pack,_ he thought as he dropped to his knees in front of his current home, thankful for the fact that he had been smart about doubling the rugs upon which he slept as he crawled within, turned, and sat down at the door as he pulled the blanket around him tighter still. The mare nudged his still wet hair, muttering softly in his ear. "I'm alright, Jessa, quit fussing," he said as he tried to push off the fact that something did not feel right about his current predicament. The horse refused to budge and instead slowly lowered herself to the ground in front of the tent.

"Good grief, old woman," Zaim smirked, rolling his eyes as he gingerly turning beside him where one of the four black saddle bags he carried with him sat. Freeing one hand while the other kept the blanket drawn around him, he grabbed for the bag before dragging it closer to him. "Where the hell is...ah Ha!" he declared as he pulled a smaller pouch out that had a collection of vials within it. The world still spun around him but at least he knew he would not have to worry about losing his footing as he dug around in the bag on his quest for the vial which would subdue the headache he suffered from. He found the vial, quickly uncorked it, and down the contents before throwing the object away from him as he cringed from the grotesque taste.

"One...two...three..." he hissed as he counted the fleeting seconds it took before the pounding subsided. With a whispered thank you to Allah above, he pulled himself further into his tent, released the blanket, and began to dress slowly and albeit a bit gingerly. First were the baggy black muslin slacks he wore, next his baggy black silk blouse which hung to his form a bit tighter than most did but still loose enough to allow for ease of movement. Much like the Assassins, he too, wore a layered belt only of black cotton and he lacked the idiocy to wear his insignia so blatantly like a fool. His black bracers said enough. With his belt in place, his hand instinctively reached up to touch his pendant...

His pendant, where the hell was it? "_Bok_," he snapped as he felt his breath catch in his throat. It was nothing of mention, not to most, but it was the last item he had been given by his mentor before the man died. It was small, gold, and bore the crescent and star of his faith. He reached into his pocket and heaved a sigh of relief when his fingers played across the object before he removed it from its resting place and draped it once more about his neck, the item glowing momentarily before resuming its shimmer.

Once dressed, Zaim began the steady process of breaking camp, rolling up the rugs on which he slept and thankful for the fact that he did not have to spend the better part of an hour shaking sand loose from the interwoven threads. The tent was easy enough to break down as he removed the poles and rolled the now free black canvas around them like a spool. Jessa took the hint and stood, snorting indignantly, unafraid of voicing her displeasure of being used as more of a camel this trip then his steed.

He smirked, lofting a brow, "You, woman, are as much of a nag as another I once knew," he said just before he heard the distinct sound of a bush full of birds being disturbed, the flock screeching their obvious disdain for those who had disturbed their resting place as they took flight.

Zaim lifted his finger to his lips, grabbed his black turban, set it on his head and placed the veil over the lower half of his face before finding the bow the girl had so generously 'gifted' him. With two arrows in hand, he jogged the few short meters up the hill east of his camp, following the murmur of a younger male being ribbed by an older one.

"Well done, Ezio," Mario laughed, "I swear some days boy you're about as graceful as Agostino."

Ezio's cheeks flushed as he sighed, "It's not my fault!" he said as he picked himself up out of the shrub his stallion had oh-so-generously thrown him off into. He had no idea what had spooked his horse, there was nothing and no one on the roads this morning yet it was almost as if the beast had sensed something that neither he nor his uncle had detected.

"Well, if there happens to be a patrol in the area, boy, guess who gets thrown to the wolves first," Mario sighed.

Zaim smirked, the girl's lover perturbed by whatever offense his animal had dealt him. One would have thought that he had perhaps been a better horseman by the way he perched himself on the beast. _Well, I guess now is as good a time as any, _he thought as he stood with bow in hand. He placed the end of both arrows against the string, applied tension to the string as he drew back, the bow creaking as it bent perfectly above and below the grip as all good Scythian bows did, and let fly both bolts. Each struck their mark at the feet of both horses.

The young stallion panicked and the horse on which the girl's mentor rode remained calm, far calmer than the boy who now had spun in place, sword drawn.

"There are days, uncle, where I wish you could keep your comments to yourself," Ezio said as he spun his blade in his hand.

Mario dismounted his horse and reached down, plucking one of the sleek black shafts from the ground. "Obsidian glass..." he said, "_Merda..."_

"It seems as if I'm beginning to like these arrows your girlfriend so charitably donated to me, boy. Pompeian glass is quite hard to come by and far harder to shape, she must have had friends in high places," Zaim said.

Ezio snarled, his stomach twisting, "You! What are you doing here?"

"I should ask you the same. Don't you know these hills are infested with all kinds of dangers that a boy and an old man would do well to avoid?" Zaim said.

"Well, if you're the worst we have to face, than I highly doubt we have much to fear!" Mario smirked.

"Didn't your mentor ever teach you it's best to leave the sleeping viper lie?" Zaim smirked.

"He did, but he also said those who have been defanged can do nothing more than bite and inflict _un inferno _of an infection," Mario said. "Ezio, put that thing away, if he had wanted to kill us those arrows would have been aimed far higher."

"Your _rafik_ is right, boy," Zaim said as he advanced the pair. "Your powers of observation astound me, old man. Here I was thinking that one looses their ability to perceive things the older one gets and you," he allowed his golden gaze to wash over the older man, "look as if you might fall over any day now."

"I could say the same for you," Mario said. "Now, are you going to stand there and continue to waste my time or do you have a reason for standing there like a _deficiente_?"

Zaim smirked, a sense of familiarity slowly crept from within the deepest recesses of his mind, "Touché. Well, I guess it depends on where your allegiances lay, old man. Would be willing to make a deal with the devil to find that which I know at least one of you have fallen for?"

Mario lofted a brow, glancing towards his nephew who now looked as if he wanted nothing more than to water the tree they stood near with the other man's blood. "What makes you think we're looking for something? Who's to say we weren't simply out for a ride?"

"Do not play coy with me, old man; I don't have time to play petty games with either you or your step-and-fetch-it here. The girl has made herself plenty of enemies, and I'd be willing to bet that one of them would be willing to partner with me long enough to get her out of her current predicament," Zaim sneered.

The expression on Ezio's face changed. "So what you're telling us is you're willing to work with us to free her?"

"It took you this long to figure that out?" Zaim said as he rolled his eyes.

"But why? Why now? You seemed so eager to turn her over to the Templars you serve..."Ezio found himself cut short.

"_Served_, boy, as in _used to_ but not anymore. Let's just say there are evils out there, darker things that should never be allowed to happen. I realize that there is enough bad blood between the Guard and the Brotherhood, but I am willing to bury the hatchet in someone else's back until these vermin are dealt with," Zaim said, a visible shiver running through him as his mind drudged up the scene he had last bore witness to.

"And your price, Black Guard? I know your kind never do anything out of the goodness of your hearts," Mario asked, hesitant to hear what it was the man had to say.

"My price?" Had Zaim thought about anything short of Borgia's head on a platter? He thought for a moment. What could he possibly want more than that? Granted the girl and him still had a feud all their own, but perhaps that would wait. After all, he had stalked the girl this long, what was another year or two? "Consider it a mutually beneficial agreement. You save the girl from impending death, and I still have the opportunity to kill her later on when she is healed and can stand once more on her own two feet."

Mario lofted a brow as Ezio moved to lunge, the boy's emotional outbursts were starting to get annoying but he knew the driving forces behind his reactions went far deeper than he could imagine. His left hand shot out; catching his nephew square in the chest as he halted him. In all his years, in all of his dealings with Demitrios who had become a regular historian when it came to the Black Guard of Solomon, he had never once heard the man say that a guard scorned would so easily back down from their original goal or ambitions. Nor would they ever offer their services so readily, regardless of how much their current employer had to put it bluntly pissed them off by royally _cazzo li sopra_. His head titled slightly to the left, his good eye appraising the man in front of him, his right hand never once leaving his nephew's chest. "Your offer comes as a surprise, signore. You will excuse me if I confer with my partner, yes?"

Zaim nodded, leaning heavily on the girl's bow, "By all means, I have all the time in the world" he said. "It's not my life that hangs in the balance," he added nonchalantly.

Ezio found himself turned around by his uncle's still firm grip as the older man pulled him away from the bastard who had the audacity and nerve to threaten Anna in the shadow of his offer to aid them. "Mario, you seriously cannot be..."

"Sh, boy," Mario snapped beneath his breath. "Something is not right with this picture."

"Prego?" Ezio said, catching the tone with which his uncle spoke. As the older man's brows furrowed in thought, a sense of unease crept over him. "Mario, what is it?" he prodded.

"The Black Guard does not so readily offer their services without first requesting a price, whether it is gold or blood. This man...is this indeed the same who first poisoned Anna then turned on you outside of the tavern?" Mario asked.

Ezio nodded emphatically, "One in the same, at least I am fairly sure...I don't remember much," he said as he winced from the memory of just how hard the _asino_ had hit him.

Mario momentarily glanced over his shoulder, "I gave Anna that bow. I can promise you that before I felt she was ready, though her time was too short with me the days following her escape, I tried to fire that weapon myself. I was unable to pull the string back, but as soon as it hit her hands she had no trouble at all making it obey her." He sighed softly as he turned his gaze back to Ezio, "That man is not entirely the person he says he is..."

"I hate to interrupt the juicy gossip, _kadinlar_, but time is of the essence. It's nearly a three day ride the way we will have to take in order to avoid the nuisance of Borgia archers the snake has posted around his lair. The sooner we get started, the sooner I can be done with this God forsaken state until I come back for the girl," Zaim said.

"Before we agree, I have a counter offer to make you, perhaps one that will capture your interests," Mario said.

Zaim lofted a brow, folding his arms across his chest as a mild look amusement crossed his features, "Oh? What could an Assassin have that a Black Guard would not have already?"

"Two years. In two years time I can assure you the girl will be properly trained in techniques other than those of an archer, if she lives. I know your kind hate to be bothered with easy kills, so I can promise you she will be a far cry from easy," Mario said. Ezio could not believe what it was he was hearing his uncle say and moved to protest when the older man stopped him by holding up his hand.

A sick feeling hit him, one that both confused the hell out of him and angered him at the same time. "Two years..."Zaim said, blinking once to clear his mind. In some way, he felt as if he should have been insulted by what the Assassin said. _Come on, snap out of it!_ He commanded himself and fortunately he obeyed. "Very well then, Assassin, we have an accord. I help you rescue the boy's girlfriend and in two years time she gives me a run for my money."

* * *

Night fell far too quickly for Ezio as he, his uncle, and the man who had weakened Anna to the point where she had been easy pickings for the Templars wound their way through an old goat path along the ravine they now traversed. The sun had already set beyond the western horizon and now the night sky shimmered above them, a thousand sparkling diamonds amongst a sapphire and onyx backdrop as trees rose towards the sky like shaded sentinels who stood ever at the ready to defend her honor should the need arise. Once more, he found himself lost in thought as he brought up the rear of the three man caravan, consumed by the girl he had tried to convince himself that he was not falling quickly for.

_Merda man, admit it already...you love her...no doubt about it at this point._ But did it not seem to have happened far too quickly given that he had not been more than what, several weeks at most without Christina? _Why do you fight it?_ Because it did not make sense, he loved the red haired maven from Firenze; he had ever since he had turned sixteen. She had been and would always be the only woman he would confess his heart to. _What are you afraid of, Ezio? Anna is all you have dreamt of, thought of, since you kissed her first in the Church!_ The Church, now that was a mistake if ever he had made one and he had indeed made his fair share of mistakes. _She looked so alone, so lost...you wanted to reach out to her, to give her hope, right?_ Well yes, of course he had. But he had not expected her to want to sleep with him some days later!

_She's young, just like you, Ezio. And just like you all she wants is to be accepted, cared for. She wants to know someone out there gives a damn about her._ But why did that person have to be him? Like he did not have enough to deal with? And for his subconscious' information, she and he were nothing alike. She was cold, calculating with no thought of those who would have gotten caught in her war path when she became angered. Anna was as blood thirsty as they came. _You so readily want to judge her. What of her confession to you in the barracks? Did you forget that look in her eyes?_

How could he forget? She had been so ready to kill him that night when he had tried to pry open the Pandora's Box that was Anna, but that had not been the case when he began to make love to her as he had back at Monterigioni. The first few minutes had been intense, more of a screaming match between them as both took their aggression and frustration over their predicament out on the other. Then as she had before, she fell into synch with him, her beautiful blue eyes softened and she was once more a woman he could have seen himself falling for. It was with that thought that a smile played across his lips, a shiver darting up his spine at the sheer memory of her touch. That thought was short lived as he remembered drifting off beside her, and seeing as she was ever the opportunist, she had left him and gotten herself in over her head as she disobeyed the rules of her punishment. She was brash, arrogant, stubborn, and that had nearly caused her to get herself killed by the_ coglione_ who rode in front of him now.

Just as he felt his anger beginning to creep up on him, he remembered the look on her face as she stood there at the end of the hall way, her silken shirt soaked to the core with her own blood. God she had looked like a ghost, whiter than the pristine sheets she had ripped away from the corners of his mattress. Tears fell like waterfalls from her eyes, sobbing silently as she stared at him, as if her crying would have upset him. Before he really had a chance to move to her, she was there, arms enveloped around his waist as she confessed her need for him. _That's right. And remember how that had felt?_ He did remember. She had stirred something he had felt turn off inside of him when Christina had broken his heart.

Then there was the tavern, and that kiss she had left on his lips. It seemed as if her whole stance against him had somehow changed in light of the events that had transpired after the incident at the barracks. _Not to mention the dreams, and the conversation..._ Yeah, yeah...he got the hint.

Maybe he did...really _like_ her..._a lot. _"I still refuse to use the other word," Ezio sighed softly to himself.

"What other word, boy?" Zaim said as he brought his horse to a halt, "You know...you should really quit mumbling to yourself. People might think you're touched."

"If I had wanted your opinion, I would've asked for it," Ezio snapped.

"So testy, don't get your panties in a bunch boy. It's really unbecoming of you," Zaim smirked.

Merda, this _stronzo_ had as much of a mouth on him as Anna did. Just as Ezio moved to say something, Mario interjected.

"Why are we stopping?" Mario asked, "By my estimate, we can still make another hundred or so meters before we set up camp."

"Well if your call boy back here would have quit talking to himself hours ago you would have heard the patrol that's been following us for the last little leg of our journey," Zaim said quietly.

"That's bull, and you know it," Ezio said as he rolled his eyes. "I would've..." just before he had a chance to finish his thought, the sound of metal against metal and stone crunching under foot echoed off of the stone wall beside him. He turned in his saddle, his stallion shifting underneath him nervously. "Sh, boy," he whispered as he patted the horse's neck.

"You two geniuses sit tight," Zaim said, "I'll be right back." He dismounted his mare, the girl's bow in his hand as he reached behind him and pulled the first arrow that spoke to him.

Before Ezio could blink, the man had vanished into the shadows. No more than two minutes later, he heard the all-too-familiar cries of guards caught by surprise, a sound that was short lived. Once the guards had been dispatched, the man reappeared beside him.

"Done, but their presence tells me that my most recent indiscretions have caused our fat little friend to call in the cavalry," Zaim sighed. "We go north, north east for the next hundred or so meters then stop to make camp," he said.

"Indiscretions? What in the hell did you do?" Ezio sighed.

"Let's just say the Cardinal was not fond of losing his German lapdog," Zaim smirked as mounted Jessa once more and the caravan continued.

Ezio lofted a brow, "You mean the beast that threw the girl and her mother into the carriage..."

"Exactly, and I will have you know that German blood is damned near impossible to clean off of Turkish steel," Zaim sighed.

* * *

The three men made their way through the new path they were forced to take, remaining silent until Zaim halted his mare. "Here," he said simply as he dismounted. The place was perfect, concealed from the stream and the road by the thickets and trees but their line of sight with either area was not too terribly obstructed. He removed his tent and rugs, Mario and Ezio doing the same from the backs of their steeds. Within minutes, they had made camp but had chosen to err on the side of caution and go without the fire at least for the next hour or so.

A situation Ezio did not mind as much as his uncle did who sat down heavily in front of his tent, grumbling about the chill on the night air. A smile played across his lips in the dark as the older man vanished within the warmth of his tent, leaving just himself and the other man outside. As he turned his gaze to the man, taking the opportunity to truly study him. His aura was not red or blue, nor was it white. No, if he had to put a name to the color he saw it was more...gold.

"Did you see something you like, Auditore?" Zaim said, sensing the boy's eyes on him. "You know, that gift of yours is going to get you in trouble one of these days."

"How is it you know so much of me while I know so little of you?" Ezio asked as he folded his arms across his chest, leaning heavily against a nearby tree.

Zaim smirked as he turned, "Who doesn't know of you, boy. Borgia would not shut up about you. He's pissed you know; something about you ruining his plans for Italia and all that. Really I don't care. I just want to see the _küçük_ _bok_ hang for what he's done."

"What is it with you and the Templars? Come to think of it, what is it with your kind and the Assassins?" Ezio asked. His uncle had been brief on the details, but he wanted to know more. Perhaps it was just the part of him that wanted another foothold of understanding when it came to Anna.

"My feud with you idiots goes farther back than that old fool in his hilltop fortress in Syria," Zaim said as he sat down in front of his tent. "We once were brothers, the Assassins and the Solomon's Guard. King Solomon had come to you, humbling himself to your mentor and master of the time as he made his request for the training of an elite group of men he would need to protect his most precious treasure. The Brotherhood agreed, especially when they discovered just what it was my brothers were to protect."

"Which was...what?" Ezio asked, thoroughly intrigued by the other man's story.

"An item that, if memory serves right, you mentor Altair ibn la-Ahad spent years in meditation with," Zaim said. "Now before I was so rudely interrupted," he said indignantly before continuing, "The King received his request and thus the Black Guard of Solomon was born. We spent several decades in service to the great king to include the years where the world began to see the slow decline of his highness into the madman he became. Still, we would not dare think of betraying the man we swore ourselves to, even when your kind came to us and demand we turn on him. You fools swore that Solomon was bent on the domination of the known world and the worlds beyond. All the man wanted was to ensure the protection of his people."

As he spoke, his anger began to churn within him, "We warned you, told you that if you dare lay a hand on one single hair on his royal head we would become sworn enemies. Still, you did not listen; you threw our friendship to the wind and killed the king we served. It was the Assassin Order who declared war on the Guard, not the other way around no matter how your mentors tell the story. We fought, brother against brother, for years...ten to be exact. Your kind did not fight with the honor your teachers had so instilled in my brothers, you used cheap parlor tricks to win the war and to add insult to injury you condemned us to live in the darkest hallows of hell. Your kind drove us from our beloved Judea and forced us to dwell in Constantinople."

Ezio found himself perturbed by the man's story. What in the world would possess the ability to drive a wise king to insanity and cause students to turn against their teachers? "What of you and the girl? Why is it you want her dead so badly?" he asked.

Zaim centered himself once more, "The girl? Easy, I was supposed to have killed her father. She was the one variable I did not count on, a fool mistake on my part. If it weren't for the fact that Eastern physicians are far superior to those here, I would have a horrible scar on my wrist and possibly never be able to use my hand again. Since her father no longer lives, she is now my new target and until I have her blood I will not return home."

Mario reappeared in the door of his tent, "I hate to break up your little bonding session, gentlemen but the night is growing late and we have an early start tomorrow. Ezio, you have first watch while myself and..." he drifted.

"Zaim, Zaim Yilmaz," he said, bowing his head slightly.

"While Zaim and myself," Mario said, "retire for the evening."

Zaim smirked, "Sounds good to me," he said, "we will discuss our next move in the morning."

* * *

_To my faithful friends, new and old,_

_Success! After much fussing and fuming...I have completed my latest addition. As always I look forward to seeing your reviews and hearing from you. I hope this answered some questions, and you have my husband to thank for the recent twist...Hope you like! Riguardi migliori, vostri...Anna_


	13. Chapter 13 The Revelation

The water was cold, a welcomed reprieve from the heat of the coals that had been employed only moments ago so it seemed. The world around Anna darker than she last remembered as she cast her eyes skyward, at least the screeching of Borgia and his brutes was muffled down here in the depths of the chamber. Beat by beat, she could feel her heart as it began to slow within her chest, a comfort as she felt her eyes drift closed. The hours felt like days, the days felt like years as night in and night out it was the same routine; the rack followed by an hour or so of time spent in and out of the water tank before she would placed within the steel embrace of the iron maiden to endure several hours of pain as she was forced to stand. Her mind took her back to the days of the first time she had been in the grasp of the Cardinal, back to the days where she remembered she had wanted nothing more than to fall asleep and drift off in the arms of the angels she would see when death hovered ever so close.

Time was indeed a fickle master, one that changed a frightened little girl into a woman scarred but not afraid to face the dangers that she faced once more. The days she had spent in solitude had given her time to think, to contemplate on life and on what she had done. Yes fear gripped her heart, yes there had been moments she wanted to do nothing more than to give up but how could she? She had already betrayed the Order when she shed the blood of an innocent priest on holy ground, shamed her father in death and those she had once sworn an oath to serve with everything she had. She was too strong of a warrior, too strong of an Assassin to let the serpent drown her in eternal darkness. She refused to give the fat bastard who ravaged her every morning the satisfaction he would have in the knowledge that he had broken one more of her kind into submission. Anna still had some chance for reconciliation, for atonement of what she had done and regardless of how much pain she had to endure, how many levels of hell she had to walk through, she would do it.

While the Fates may have seemed to do little but play a tune with the string that was her life, Time was on her side.

The rope tightened, the tension in her lungs had reached its climax as she was hoisted up out of the water. Her eyes fluttered open as she came face to face with a flustered Borgia, his chubby cheeks redder than the blood that sat chilled in her veins, a sadistic smile on her lips as he snorted.

"What are you smiling about?" Rodrigo snarled.

Anna spit the water she had been holding in her mouth towards him, dousing his face in a shower of saliva ridden fluid before she inhaled sharply, "I thought maybe you needed a bath as much as I do, so I figured I would help."

"You insolent little puttana," Rodrigo snapped, "I grow tired of your little games." She had done little but offer off handed remarks about him and about the Church since he first started to try to break her. Add to the fact that his aid now sat in a ditch behind the tower as he decayed and that the Turk had eluded capture, he was very much at his rope's end. He wanted nothing more than to wrap his hands around that beautiful little neck of her's and choke the life out of her but that would do him no good. Perhaps now was the time to utilize one more strategy against the girl. "Cut her down, and bring her to the chamber," he said coolly. "Brother Anthony" he said as he turned to the balding priest that had replaced the German, "fetch me the whore, perhaps it is time that she sympathize with her offspring on a far more...deeper level."

_"Figlio di una cagna,"_ Anna snarled, her heart pounding in her chest, "leave her out of this!" The guard did as he was commanded as he pulled her to the platform above the tank. There, he unhooked her from the rope and allowed two other black clad priests to step in and sweep her off to the main chamber where she was then lashed to a chair, her mother brought into the chamber mere moments after.

Elizabeth smiled, relieved to see Anna alive, "It's about time," she said, "I was begin'n ta think you'd all but forgotten about a poor ol' woman."

"Borgia, I swear," Anna hissed, "with God as my witness I will kill you! I will sever your head and hang your entrails from the top of this tower!"

Brother Anthony placed Elizabeth on the rack that Anna had been strapped to earlier before he was instructed to not pull the wheel which would tighten the device. Borgia stepped forward, "Let us try this again, girl," he said as he slipped off his right glove and replaced it with a glove which contained metal plates over the finger knuckles and top of his hand, "Where is that stronzo of a boy and the sorry excuse for a mentor you both have ties to?"

"Fuck you, fuck every last one of you," Anna snarled as the tears pooled in her eyes, "I will kill you!"

"Wrong answer," Rodrigo said as he reared back and landed a solid blow to Elizabeth's abdomen with a resounding _thud._ "Where are they?"

Anna thrashed in her chair as her mother cringed, "Don't tell 'em nothin' girl!" she gasped before looking to the Cardinal, "Is that the best ya got, son? I've known women who hit harder than you!"

Rodrigo reared back once more, this time landing an even harder blow slightly higher than the last, high enough to catch one of Elizabeth's ribs and hard enough that everyone heard the _crack_ as bone shattered and she gasped for air. Anna sobbed, "Mother, I'm...I'm sorry."

As sure as she breathed, Anna knew that if allowed to continue his task, her mother would be beaten to a bloody and shattered shadow of her former self. Time was no longer on her side, so it seemed as she watched her mother fight to remain strong as the Cardinal delivered blow after blow. Where was he? Where were Ezio and his uncle? _God, please if you can hear me...protect us..._

* * *

One, two, three. Three parts of this to one of that, one wrong move or twitch could be the end of Zaim and the two men who slept soundly outside. The recipes were old, some two hundred years old in fact as he slowly poured the powdered mixture into the last clay container he had in his possession. It was a drastic move, a last ditch effort in planning on his part to ensure some form of success. _I'll be damned if that little fat Cardinal is going to escape so easily this time,_ he thought as he dipped the wick in a bit of lamp oil before slipping it through the hole in the cork once he had ensured the object was secured in between his knees. "There," he purred as he carefully placed the cork inside of the opening, "Téleia!" The contraption was no bigger than a stein, if half the size of one but packed enough of a punch that if he placed it within the powder stores the idiot's men had hidden behind the tower near the rocks for the two pointless cannons he had, the tower and half the cliff face above the structure would fall.

Once secured in a black satchel to his person he stepped outside of his tent. The morning air chilled him to the bone; clouds choked what few rays of sun dared to break through their grasp. The sky glowed above them in one of the deepest hues of red he had seen since the start of the Ottoman onslaught of Venetian trade routes in the Mediterranean, a sure sign of perhaps what lay ahead of them as they continued the last hundred or so meters to the blind side of the tower. Zaim cast his eyes to the sky that began to tear, crystal drops falling to the ground as the wind sobbed gently around where he and the Assassins had slept. _Allah, if you can hear me, I pray of you now. Protect us from the hand of the Dark One. Send your servants to take their watch of the girl. If she be alive, protect her. If she nears death, bring her comfort and take her away from her suffering with haste. If she be gone, I pray you guide my hand so justice is served. Praise be to you...praise be to you._ His prayer was silent, unspoken as he closed his eyes, his inhalation deep of the brisk morning air.

"Alright princess," Zaim said as he kicked the boots of the boy who slept soundly beneath the shadow of a small shrub. "We've got a short distance to make and the quicker I can get the girl out, the sooner I'll be rid of the headache that is you," he smirked.

Ezio sighed and groaned as he fought to the shake the sleep off. He was sore, stiff, cold and was severely missing his bed back at the villa at this point in time. "You know, if I didn't know any better I'd say you and the girl are related," he growled, "because you both have the same damned disposition in the morning."

"I'll take that as a compliment, then boy," Zaim smirked, "because she's got more balls than you do."

Mario grunted as he rolled over, "I swear with God as my witness if I have to hear any more brainless banter between you both I will run you through," he growled as he shifted to a sitting position slowly. "Where the hell is the sun?" he snarled beneath his breath.

"Good morning to you too," Zaim said as he walked to his mare, digging around in one of the saddle bags he had slung over her flanks. Where the hell was it? He knew the little shit had done as he requested with no trouble at all...

Mario rolled his eyes, "So what's the plan, maestro?"

"Well, old man, you're job is simple," he said as his hand finally found what he had been looking for, the item he had managed to lift off of a patrol while the other two idiots slept like rocks. "You get to go up the hill a bit, there's a carriage waiting. That's our ticket out of this God forsaken ravine, as for you boy..." Zaim brandished a set of shackles, "You're the sacrificial lamb."

Ezio's eyes narrowed, "What the hell...? Have you lost your damned mind?"

Mario folded his arms across his chest, "Zaim, I am beginning to like you."

Ezio spun, "What?You've got to be shitting me! Are you listening to yourself?"

"I am, and I've been listening to your non-stop complaining for the last two days," Mario sighed. "I've heard not a damned thing constructive leave your lips and trust me, when we get back to the Villa I intend to deal with that attitude of yours. For now, however, let's focus on getting the girl and her mother out of that shithole and back with us safely."

Zaim chuckled as he advanced Ezio, "Give me your wrists boy," he said. He watched Ezio tense as he grumbled something unintelligible, "Relax, Borgia shackles are shoddily made, thus making them easy to get out of," he said. "But just in case," with a quick flourish he slipped the key to the shackles into the confines of the boy's bracers. "Now, while your mentor fetches our ride, I want you to be the good fake prisoner. I'll rough you up a bit, and then just follow my lead."

"And what, pray tell, will be my signal for getting out of these damned things?" Ezio asked as he lofted a brow, annoyed that he had some sense of admiration for the Guard's hair brained scheme.

Zaim grinned beneath the confines of his veil, "You seriously think I thought all of this through? Boy, what part of I-make-this-shite-up-as-I-go do you not understand?" he laughed as he slipped the shackles on the boy's wrists.

Ezio sighed, "I was afraid you'd say that," he said before wincing as the shackles caught him wrong, "Ow, hey!" he snapped.

"I only said I'd call a truce, boy, at least until the girl is in our possession and your mentor here can hold up his end of the bargain," Zaim purred. "I never said I would consider us friends, consider this a reminder."

Mario took note of the excess bag that hung from the Turk's waist, "What is that?"

Zaim smirked, "Insurance, old man. A bit of Arabic magic that will surely do the job if we should fail."

The plan was simple enough; Zaim would play off of the boy's already strong sense of distaste for him as he used him as bait to lure the Cardinal into his trap. He'd pitch the boy's capture as a gift of truce between him and the fat man, though he was already counting on the moron not falling that easily into his ploy so he was counting on Plan B to work. Plan B was to use the element of surprise to throw the fat man off of his scent, having given the boy the key to the shackles...he was just hoping the boy would have the wherewithal to keep the dogs that were bound to show up off of him long enough to swoop in, grab the girl, and run.

Then there was Plan Z...but that one...would more than likely get them all killed...

* * *

_This is it_. A different man once stood on the road to the west of the tower, a man who wore the colors of the Papacy proudly some five years ago. Now, he shifted uncomfortably beneath the layers of thick padding that sat atop a crimson and black striped doublet and beneath heavy plate armor, iron in color and adorned in intricate vine designs on each individual piece. The chest plate bore the emblem of Pope Sixtus, the same snake he had once shown nothing but deep adoration for. His helmet, Spanish in design complete with a black horse hair crest, sat heavy on his head as the steel face mask that once intimidated his foes threatened to smother him. A sigh escaped his lips. He had been known as Wilhelm von Ingraham, lieutenant general of the Papal Army and once a protector of the Holy See, at least that was who he was before the girl and her family happened.

As he closed his eyes, he watched in his mind's eye the events that transpired that eve take place once more. Giovanni Auditore, along with his brother Mario and a small contingent of Mario's mercenario infiltrated the tower utilizing a prison transport tunnel that had been employed to the east within the mountainside against which the infernal thing sat still. He had been posted among the cells of the third floor at the time; the girl had worn on him, so much so that it was him and only him that would remove her from the torture chamber. He would scoop her into his massive arms, careful to not let her head lull too far back after she had passed out from sheer exhaustion. For days he had done this, and every day he saw the truth that had lain within the lie that had been woven oh so intricately by the same man who he knew had the girl and her mother in his clutch once more.

The fight had been a brutal one and when Mario and his brother reached the cells, it was Wilhelm that stepped forward and gladly turned the keys over to the two Assassins. When Mario had inquired why he had been so quick to turn, he told the elder man that he had seen the lie which he had sworn to uphold and could do it no longer. He knew the consequences of his actions and those were consequences he was glad to suffer so long as he knew the precious little girl would be safe and sound. It was to his arms he once more committed her as the other men freed her mother and father. He helped the girl's father reclaim his weaponry and watched in awe as he expertly wielded both blades, against the wounds that had been inflicted against him.

Wilhelm ran as fast and hard as he could with the girl out of the tower before placing her on Giovanni's horse before he turned and raced back into the fray to aid the duel wielder. Though to his dismay he arrived a few moments too late, the man falling to the sword of the Cardinal before the fat little bastard escaped. He turned, being called by Mario to continue his offer of support to get them to safety and from that day on he had never looked back. _Yes, that was many years ago._

Philippe was careful as he advanced the man who stood at the edge of the road before casting his gaze down into the ravine, the guard captain's helmet beneath his left arm, "Do you think the Turk knows of this, Agostino?"

Yes, that was his name now. Agostino Lombardi, part of the new identity he had been so given by the man he now swore his life to. "Knowing the commandante, hell no the man doesn't know," he said as he turned and looked at Philippe, "and I can tell you this much. That bastardi in his viper's nest will not slither away from me as quickly as he did last time."

Philippe nodded, he knew the story of how his father, the only blonde haired and blue eyed mercenary Mario had in his command, had come to acquire his name. "Do you think the girl is alive?" he asked.

Agostino laughed, "Boy, that girl's got more fight than a rabid fox in her. I can guarantee she's still alive," he said. _Though God knows for how much longer,_ he thought to himself.

Mario panted heavily as he made the trek up the hillside to the roads that sat some thirty or so meters above where they had made camp. "When this is all said and done," he huffed, "I'm telling Anetta to stop making so many damned pastries." The Turk had outdone himself this time, having picked the steepest incline he could find knowing full well that Mario would be unable to take the walk.

"But why, commandante," Agostino said from behind the black and gold carriage that he had seen the Turk arrive with some hours before, "I rather enjoy that woman's croissants."

"It's about bloody time you showed up," Mario cried.

"Mi dispiace, my captain," Agostino said.

"I see you got my message," Mario smiled as he admired the way the captain's uniform looked on the man's son. Several days ago, before he and his nephew were met by Zaim, he had encountered a few patrols on the roads they now stood on. With Ezio's help, the two of them managed to confiscate some eight uniforms, enough to clothe a small enough detachment of his men to cover their backs should the Turk turn on them.

"Si, we did. Molto grazie, commandante," Agostino said as he bowed slightly out of respect.

Mario sighed, "Well at least the Turk has held up his end of the bargain thus far," he said as he advanced the carriage. "You don't by any chance have any of my private reserve on you by perchance, Captain?" he said, unable to hide the hope in his voice.

Agostino lofted a brow as he removed his helmet, "I do not know what you are talking about", he said.

"Like hell you don't, your breath tells otherwise," Mario said, "but for now I can overlook your indiscretion. That Turkish bastardo and Ezio have done little but to get on my nerves these last few days," Mario growled. "Here, give me your flask," he snapped.

Agostino chuckled as he removed the small metal container from the leather case on his belt before he obliged the older man, "That bad?"

"Worse than having to listen to Philippe play the cat on that God thing you call a lute," Mario grunted as he took a long, welcomed draw from Agostino's flask. The liquid was warm, warmer than the brisk air that wrapped itself around him as he smiled contently and place the flask in the waiting hand of the captain. "Now that was much needed," he purred.

"What is the plan Maestro?" Agostino said as he placed the flask once more on his hip.

"Zaim is going to use Ezio as bait in an attempt to lure Rodrigo out of his hole," Mario started, "where are we on sweeping the general vicinity of patrols?"

"The Turk did most of the work for us this morning," Philippe piped up, "we already have men in place of the archers on the roof, now all that needs to be done is for us to take our places near the door."

"Bene, then let's get this thing down to the tower before our Turkish friend arrives," Mario smiled slyly, "We'll see who has outwitted who."

* * *

"Move it," Zaim snapped as he shoved Ezio unceremoniously toward the main entrance to the tower only to be stopped by the latest change of guard. In front of them stood a four guard detachment with two pikeman, a strangely dressed brute wearing the black and red regalia of the Pope with a large sword at his side, and a black and crimson clad captain.

"So the dog returns to his master vith his tail tucked in between his legs," the Papal Guard grunted from beneath his armor.

"Il Cardinale gave us strict orders to make sure you were either detained or killed," the captain said.

Ezio lifted his head, eyes narrowing as he caught the pitch change in the captain's voice. _Mache? Did this idiot just hit puberty?_ he thought as he swore he caught a distinct squeak in the man's pitch.

The brute leaned closer to Ezio and grunted, "Hey...I know zis one. He's that trouble maker the boss's been hunting after."

Ezio lofted a brow; the brute reeked of his Uncle's private stash of Italian whiskey. _What in the hell?_ Slowly he began to add the equation up in his mind as his eyes lifted skyward to where the three archers stood, leaning over the railing as they waved down towards where he stood. "What the..." he said, "Ag...Agostino?"

The brute chuckled from beneath his helmet, "Da, ein and zah same boy," Agostino said.

Zaim hissed, eyes narrowed as he watched the exchange in front of him, "What the hell is this? I do not appreciate being left out of the loop."

"The answer is simple, Zaim," Mario said, appearing from around the edge of the building, "As you said, insurance."

"Insurance? For what?" Zaim snapped, "We had an agreement! I do not take kindly to men who turn so quickly on another after they have given their word."

"Indeed we did and we still do, my boy, but did you honestly think I'd let a man I barely know utilize the one last hope for my bloodline as bait?" Mario smirked.

Zaim rolled his eyes, "Are you _off your rocker, old man?_ Your men are the poorest excuse for guards I've had the displeasure of killing myself, and believe me I've dispatched more than my fair share. They're clumsy, awkward, and be damned if they can say _anything_ without sounding stupid!" he snapped.

Agostino snarled, "_Halt den Mund, Bauer,_" he snapped. "I know zese voods and zis tover like das hairs on mine arsch," he snarled before he coughed and shook his head to clear it from the memory of what he had been the day he met Mario and Giovanni the first time they had come to rescue the girl. "This was my post many years ago," he purred, his Italian accent once more returning to his words.

It was at that time that Philippe took note of a strange object which hung from the black belt the Turk wore. It was nothing of great notice, just some black bag that had been poorly attached to the other man's belt. He waited to see if the other man would take note of his attentive stare as he watched him curiously.

Zaim lofted a brow, taken aback by the mercenary brute's confession. "Well then, old man," he said before he met Mario's gaze, "I applaud you, seems you're an excellent card player if you've managed to keep this ace up your sleeve without my knowledge."

Mario laughed, "So I've been told boy and perhaps I will show you how I do it but for now this gets us nowhere," he said. As he readied his sword, the smile vanished from his face, "My student is somewhere inside of this tower and God knows how much longer she can hold out. She is strong, but not this strong," he said softly.

Zaim nodded, "Indeed. You heard the man," he said before prodding a rather confused Ezio ahead of him. "Good, that dazed look will work to our advantage," he smirked. "Captain, after you," he said as he nodded to Agostino who returned the gesture and began to lead them down the hallway that led into the man made cavern that made up the torture cells and chambers.

Zaim never felt the sleight of hand Philippe used to lift the parcel off of his person. Once the group had vanished well behind him, Mario stepped forward. "Most interesting," the elder man whispered after the younger mercenary opened the parcel. Inside of the bag sat an object, a clay pot of sorts with what looked like a cork inside of the thing.

"Commandante? What is this thing?" Philippe said as he turned the object over in his hand, head titled to the left as he studied it.

Mario thought for a moment before his eyes widened, "Boy, be careful with that!" Quickly, he snatched the object from the younger man, "This thing could very well spell the death of us all if you're idiot enough to drop it!"

"Why did he have it?" Philippe asked.

Mario paused before a sly smile touched his lips, "There's a powder store behind this tower. By God that man is smart." He handed the pot back to Philippe, "Boy, take this and stand at the ready to light this fuse but run as fast and as hard as you can at the first sign of trouble!"

"The hallways were dark, save for what little light the torches offered. The air was heavy, the stench of decaying iron and bones alike assaulting their noses as exhausted screams of heart wrenching agony began to echo louder and louder with every step they took.

"Steel yourself, boy," Zaim whispered, "the evils inside of this god forsaken place is the stuff nightmares are made of."

Ezio swallowed hard, each step harder than the last to take as he followed Agostino. This place, it reeked of death, of fear and agony. _Mio Dio Anna,_ he thought, heart heavy as he heard screams filter down the hallway some Anna's others more certainly her mother's. No wonder why she was so afraid to trust, to allow anyone inside of her thoughts. The sheer fact she allowed him to bed her amazed him now as it became clearer why she was the way she was.

"Ve are here," Agostino growled as he knocked on the door, jolting Ezio from his thoughts.

"I told you, idiots, I was not to be disturbed," Rodrigo snapped through the door.

"_Verzeih mir_, Kardinal. But it seemz das assassin has returned vith a...peace offering," Agostino said.

The door creaked open, as Agostino stepped through the group were met by the sight of seven Papal Guards standing sentient over the room, surrounding Rodrigo and the remaining black clad priests. Elizabeth lay outstretched on the rack while Anna was secured to a chair, forced to watch as the Cardinal beat her mother near death.

Rodrigo pivoted on his foot, his eyes coming to a halt on the boy and the Guard who had killed his servant. "So the Prodigal son returns," he purred, smiling, "and with a gift?"

Zaim pushed Ezio further into the room, "Look who I found snooping around the area. I figured why the hell not, might as well see if he's worth anything."

"Always the opportunist," Rodrigo said, "I am impressed."

"Whatever, look," Zaim said, "Here's the brat you whined about..."

Anna's heart stopped as the door opened, "Ezio?" she said as she watched the Turk slip into the room with the boy in tow. _No, no, no...This can't be, _she thought. "Ezio, no..." she whispered, her shoulders sunk further, tears falling down her cheeks. Why had he not listened to her? Why had he allowed himself to be captured? "You idiot..." she said. She knew he would suffer a far worse fate than either she or her mother ever would, a thought that chilled her to the core as for the moment life seemed a whole lot darker without him there.

It was in that moment of clarity she realized that it was well passed the time of ignoring what her heart begged her to admit all along since he had first reached out to her, since he first kissed her in the church. "Ezio," she said softly as she met his gaze.

"It's been too long, boy," Rodrigo said, "tell me...what do you think of her now?"

Ezio's heart leapt into his throat at the sheer sight of her and instinctively he yanked hard against the chain that held him to his would be captor. She was bloodied, bruised, and soaked to the core. She looked as if she had not slept in days. As her eyes met his, the exchange was unspoken; the way his name fell from her lips said it all. His eyes narrowed as he reluctantly turned from Anna and met eyes with the Spanish bastardi who had taken so much from him, "Does your degeneracy know no bounds!" he snarled.

"Not when it comes to what's important to you, boy," he said smugly.

Zaim held tighter to the chain, "Not so fast, Cardinal. Why not trade the boy for the girl, hm? I can take her off your hands, you have what you were looking for and...I'll even do you the honor of getting out of Italy."

Rodrigo lofted a brow, his keen eyes studying the chest insignia on the brute who had escorted Zaim and the boy into the chambers. The colors...were wrong. With a quick flick of his wrist the door slammed shut behind the three of them, closed by one of the guards who stood closest to it.

Zaim hissed, "What is the meaning of this?" Somehow, in some way, he knew the mercenaries at Mario's beck and call would screw things up.

"Did you think I'd fall for this little trick of yours, Turk?" Rodrigo said matter-of-factly, "I would have expected more from you, truly. We haven't used those colors for the insignias in five years."

Zaim sighed as he let go of the chain that bound him to Ezio, the boy having already made short work of the shackles that contained him. The Turk smiled as he drew his blade, "Then gentlemen, shall we dance?" As he spun his blade in his hand, he took the first swing at one of the seven heavily armored guards, "Get the girl, the mercenary and I can handle this!"

Two of the four priests stood in front of Anna while the other two took places in front of Elizabeth who was trying her best to pick the locks which held her in place, the pick provided by the skeleton in her cell. Each man stood taller than Ezio, closer to Agostino in height, each with a weapon designed for bashing more than for the purpose of a fair fight. Ezio spun to the left as the first man came down with his blade, both of his wrists coming out within his hidden blades extended as he landed a solid killing blow to the man's back as both blades hit their mark through his heart.

"Ezio! Behind you!" Anna cried as she fought to wriggle her wrists free of the ropes that bound her arms behind her.

Ezio spun and dropped, quickly utilizing one of Anna's moves as he used the momentum of his spin to sweep his left leg out and catch the other priest by surprise, sending the man to the ground.

Anna was about to say something when she felt the gloved hands of Borgia wrap around her neck, her eyes going wide as she gasped for air.

"Not this time, girl," Borgia hissed in her ear.

Just as she felt the familiar sensation of oxygen deprivation, his voice purred behind them. "Not so fast, fat man," Zaim said as Mario and his small detachment of men burst in through the door to join in the fray.

"Do it and she dies, Turk," Borgia said as he felt the kiss of cold steel against his neck.

"By the time she draws her last breath, I would've killed you three times over," Zaim said as he reared back only to feel the ground shutter beneath him as the tower shook and groaned above.

The room fell still as a steady grumbling was heard followed by the sound of several explosions and stones bouncing off of the outside of the tower. Zaim patted himself down only to find the parcel he had started out with this morning had vanished, "Shit," he snapped.

"Men, to me!" Borgia said as the tower shuttered once more, a beam shaking loose above his head and crashing down on the apparatus that contained Elizabeth. He quickly made for a side tunnel that would take him away from the fight and to the safety of his carriage.

"Mother...no!" Anna screamed as Zaim cut her bonds loose. She lurched forward as Agostino spun and lifted the beam from her mother before cutting the woman's chains free of her. Gently he lifted her and made for the door that now sat ajar as the tower began to collapse around them.

"Everyone! Out now!" Zaim cried. "Boy, you get the girl," he said as he spun his blade in his hand and darted for the opening he had seen the Cardinal take.

"Zaim! Where are you going?" Ezio called above the chaos.

"To rid ourselves of the fat man once and for all, boy, now go!" Zaim said as he vanished down the hall where Borgia had disappeared only moments before.

The race to the outer-most door was a treacherous one as Ezio spun and dodged falling masonry. Once outside, the group were met by a waiting Philippe and the carriage the Turk had stolen for their use. There was little time to heave a sigh of relief as the entire hillside was quickly deteriorating, the powder store far larger than anyone had anticipated. Quickly Anna and her mother were placed inside the carriage joined by Agostino and Mario as the remaining mercenaries hopped on the first horses they found. Ezio took to the driver's seat of the carriage, took the reins from Philippe's hands and piloted the carriage away from the landslide as the tower vanished beneath tons of stone and rubble.

* * *

_To the fans,_

_Many apologies for it taking me oh so long to get an update on this story. To those who continue to pledge their attention to this tale, my deepest gratitude for digging through the archives to find me! I am constantly amazed and humbled as every week several more people join us on this journey!_

_So I definitely want your input on things. Did the ending feel rushed? Was it suitable? You decide and don't hesitate to be honest!_

_On another note, this is the "season finale" of sorts as we close the introduction to Anna and the colorful cast that have introduced themselves to this story. You all have played a critical role in the development of what has turned out to be a some near 200 page epic if you were to print it on paper (trust me, I did it). Stay tuned for the continuation of the saga. No...the title won't change, I promise :-)_

_Riguardi migliori, vostri,_

_Nastassia_


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